LIBRARY OP CONGRESS. 
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



SAHCTIFICATION. 



BY 



Rev. W. B. GODBEY, A. M., 

Of the Kentucky Conference, 
ATJTHOR OIF "B APTISM.' 




CINCINNATI: 

Elm Street Printing Company, Nos. 176 & 178 Elm Street. 

1884. 



n 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by 

W. B. GODBEY, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 



•f is Library 
ye Congress 

WASHINGTON 



PREFACE. 



ST. Louis, Mo., February 15, en route to Cape 
Girardeau, Mo., to hold a protracted meeting. I turn 
myself over to the Lord to write, as he may lead me, 
on Christian experience. We call the book "Sancti- 
fication" for three reasons: 

1. Sanctification is used more frequently than any 
other word in the Bible explanatory of experience. 

2. It is the consummation of Christian experience; 
t, e., it eliminates all sin, and thereby perfects the 
Christian character. "Free from sin' ' (Rom. vi. 22). 

3. It is the Bible standard of Christianity. Hence, 
the man who is not entirely sanctified, is beneath his 
privileges. He is not what God wants him to be. 
As I expect to finish the book before I get home (to 
Carlisle, Ky.), I shall find it necessary to quote from 
the compendious works of Drs. Wood, Watson, etc. 

I am writing neither for the critical nor the impen- 
itent, but for inquirers after truth and seekers after 
godliness. 

I shall freely quote from a diversity of authors, es- 
pecially the Methodistic fathers. 

(3) 



ABBREVIATIONS. 

G — Greek. 

H — Hebrew. 

p. L.— Wood's " Perfect Love." 

P. and M.— Wood's " Purity and Maturity,' 

i. e. — that is. 

tdtm — the same. 

e. g. — for example. 

(4) 



EXORDIUM. 



1. — My Experience. 

The Lord in great mercy blessed me with a 
preaching father and Christian mother. Hence, 
I was brought up unstained with the vulgar 
vices. When a small boy, I was powerfully 
wrought upon by the Holy Spirit. On one oc- 
casion I went to bed from sheer conviction, not 
knowing what was the matter with me. 

At the age of sixteen, I went to a revival 
meeting on Saturday night. It seemed to me 
that every word was aimed right at me. My 
heart was torn to pieces and my face deluged 
with tears. The invitation was extended. 
Many crowded the altar. I wanted to go and 
tried my best, but could not move. 

A cousin of mine, John Bishop, was happily 
converted and rose shouting. I soon found 
myself at the altar. How I got there I never 
knew. I suppose some one found me and led 
me forward. 

(5) 



6 SANCTIFICATION. 

I joined the church, but was not converted. 
Went home with a friend. Spent a sleepless 
night in awful agony, expecting to be in hell 
before day. Arose at dawn; took no break- 
fast and no dinner, but wandered alone in the 
woods, the mountain on me growing heavier 
and heavier. I come to a ravine, cross it and 
start up a small hill. My load gets so heavy, 
I fall at the root of a large oak, and cry out: 
"0 Lord, I deserve nothing but hell." I faint; 
I die. How long I was there I know not. I 
found myself away from the tree some distance, 
shouting the praises of God. 

I supposed sin was dead and I was free. But, 
to my sorrow, I soon felt sin move in me. I 
fled to God and he blessed me, but the war 
waxed hot with indwelling sin. I had the ex- 
perience of some of the Galatians : " The flesh 
lusteth (fighteth) against the Spirit, and the 
Spirit against the flesh ; so I could not do the 
things that I would." My life was an alternation 
of day and night. 

Four years after my conversion, I began to 
preach; meanwhile, the internal conflict grew 
hotter and fiercer. 

I wandered in the wilderness nineteen years, 
fifteen of which I preached the gospel; my 



SANCTIFICATION. 7 

heart incessantly the scene of a terrible civil- 
war. I achieved some great victories in the 
wilderness and was often happy. My outward 
life was irreproachable. I often conversed with 
Christians, both preachers and laymen, in ref- 
erence to indwelling evil, of which I was so 
painfully conscious, but found no comfort. 
They told me death was the only deliverer. 

In 1858 I was sent to Perryville Circuit, 
where I soon discovered that I was preaching to, 
some people who enjoyed more religion than. 
their pastor. 

As afterward informed, they, observing my 
deficiency in spirituality, were praying for m& 
incessantly. About Christmas I began a pro- 
tracted meeting at Wesley Chapel. After ten 
days' fruitless labor, I announced my purpose 
to close the meeting. Immediately three men 
arose in the congregation and requested me to 
continue, notifying me of their mutual vow to 
God never to close the meeting without a re- 
vival. I took them by the hand, assuring them 
1 would stand by thorn. 

In a few days the power came and the altar 
was crowded, and souls were passing from death 
unto life. 

Notwithstanding my inward conflict and my 



8 SANCTIFICATION. 

longing desire for holiness, I had no sympathy 
with the doctrine of sanctification as a distinct 
blessing, but regarded its advocates as fanatics. 
I had strong prejudice against noisy demonstra- 
tions in religion. One night, amid the wonder- 
ful affusions of the Holy Spirit, while the 
house rang with shouts, I found myself running 
round, praising God at the top of my voice. 

That was my Pentecost. I was baptized with 
the Holy Ghost and fire. " Refining fire went 
through my heart; illuminating my soul, scat- 
tering life through every part, and sanctify- 
ing the whole." Fifteen years have rolled 
away; the same sacred fire flashes from the 
crown of my head to the soles of my feet. My 
weary soul found sweet, happy rest in the arms 
of Jesus. 

And where is the war? The battle is fought, 
the victory won, the field is silent. 

The Spirit leads me through those deep 
chambers of my soul where, for nineteen years, 
I had seen so much corruption, and shows me 
all white and clean, "washed in the blood of the 
Lamb/' 

Then and there my ministerial character also 
underwent a radical revolution. I had never 
been a revivalist. From that day God began 



SANCTIFICATION. V 

to convert people wherever I labored. Since 
that memorable epoch, 5,000 souls have, pro- 
fessed conversion and several hundred sanctifi- 
oation at my meetings. 

In sanctification, I have received infinitely 
more than I ever expected this side of heaven. 
The sweet, happy rest, the constant victory, the 
unutterable joy and the perpetual hallelujah 
ringing in my heart, environ me with a sweet 
heaven in which to go to heaven. The blessed 
Savior lives my life for me. Glory and honor 
to his sweet, dear name forever. 

2. — History. 

I use the words sanctification, holiness, per- 
fection and purity synonymously. It is a 
matter of inspired record that many of the Old 
Testament saints were perfect. The disciples 
were sanctified at Pentecost. Paul professes it 
(Phil. iii. 15). The apostolic fathers enjoyed 
and professed it. • 

Macarius says: "Perfect purity from sin, free- 
dom from all shameful lusts and passions, and 
the assumption of perfect virtue; that is, the 
purification of the heart by the plenary and 
experimental agency of the perfect and divine 
Spirit"— P. L. 266. If the Church had not 



10 SANCTIFICATION. 

fallen from the apostolic doctrine and expe- 
rience of entire sanctification, a thousand \ears 
of darkness would never have deluged the world 
with ignorance, rapine, blood and death. Cath- 
olicism and Arianism and Mohammedanism 
would never have been born. 

The Waldenses in the third century fled from 
the corruptions of the Catholic Church into 
the mountains of Piedmont, carrying with them 
the B.ble doctrine and experience of purity,, 
which they have maintained to this day despite 
all the bloody persecutions of Rome. From 
the Waldenses originated the Moravians, and 
from the Moravians the Methodists (religiously, 
but ecclesiastically from the Episcopal Churrfh). 
Even the Roman Catholic Church was not left 
without witnesses to this great central truth of 
Christianity. Kempis, Fenelon, Madame Guyon, 
and many others, nobly defended and beautifully 
exemplified this doctrine. George Fox, the 
founder of Quakerism, preached it with great 
force one hundred years before John Wesley. 
" The Holy Club was formed at Oxford, in 1729 7 
for the sanctification of its members. The 
Wesleys there sought purification, and White- 
field joined them for that purpose.' — Jbtevem' 
History of Methodism; P. L. 270. 



SANCTIFICATION. 11 

Thus we see Methodism was born in a "holi- 
ness band/' i. e., born of sanctification. It is 
a significant fact that there never would have 
been a Methodist Church, but for the doctrine 
and experience of sanctification. 

"In Luther's mind, justification was the 
central idea; in Calvin's, the decrees. But 
Methodism is a viewing of Christianity from the 
standpoint of Christian perfection or perfect 
love. In Mr. Wesley's experience, the struggle 
was for entire sanctification ; and perfect love 
became the formal principle of his theology." 
—Dr. Warren, P. L. 271. 

" It (sanctification) is the grand deposition 
which God has given to the people called Meth- 
odists, and chiefly to propagate this, it appears, 
God has raised them up." — J. Wesley, P. L. 
194. 

"The doctrine of entire sanctification, as a 
distinct work wrought in the soul- by the Holy 
Ghost, is the great distinguishing doctrine of 
Methodism. This given up, and we have but 
little left which we do not hold in common with 
other evangelical denominations." — Dr. George 
Peck, P. L. 194. 

"Methodism was not in its original life more 
marked by seeking justification by faith, than 



12 SANCTIFICATION. 

by seeking sanctification by faith." — Rev. Wm. 
Arthur, idem. 

'''The doctrine more especially urged upon 
believers (in early Methodism) was that of 
sanctification, or holiness of heart and life, and 
this was pressed upon them as their present 
privilege, depending upon its accomplishment 
now on the faithfulness of God, who had prom- 
ised to do it. It was the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost which fired and filled the hearts of God's 
ministers at that time." — Dr. Bangs' History of 
M. E. Church; P. L. 195. 

Wesley, in his "plain account of Christian 
perfection," exhorts his preachers "to preach 
perfection to believers constantly, urgently and 
explicitly." 

The pastoral address of the General Confer- 
ence of 1832 nobly recognizes and enforces this 
great truth. Why have we so few living wit- 
nesses that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth 
from all sin?" 

Among primitive Methodists, the experience 
of this high attainment in religion may be said 
to have been common; now a profession of it is 
rarely to be met with among us. Is it not time 
for us, in this matter at least, to return to first 
principles? Is it not time that we throw off 



SANCTIFICATION. 1 3 

the reproach of inconsistency with which we 
are charged in regard to this matter ? 

Only let all who have been born of the Spirit 
"seek with the same ardor to be made perfect 
in love as they sought for the pardon of their 
sins, and soon our class-meetings and love-feasts 
will be cheered with the relation of experiences 
of this high character, as they are now with 
those which tell of justification and the new 
birth. And when this shall come to be the 
ease, we may expect a corresponding increase 
in the amount of our Christian enjoyments, and 
in the force of the religious influence we shall 
exert over others." — P. L. 136. 

This is from headquarters, and you see it has 
the right ring. 

It is the testimony of American Methodism 
undivided, certifying that entire sanctification 
by the cleansing blood was the common expe- 
rience of primitive Methodists; at the same 
time bewailing the apostasy, and exhorting the 
people to return to first principles. 

Dr. Lovick Pierce, in a sermon to the General 
Conference of the M. E. Church, South, said: 
"Just so far as our Church has ceased to believe 
in entire sanctification and to seek after it as 
the only phase of religion revealed in the New 



14 SANCTIFICATION. 

Testament that saves us from all sin, just so far 
we are a corrupted and God-forsaken Church, 
and it is useless to try to sustain ourselves on 
what we have been." — P. L. 214. 

Bishop Asbury wrote to Henry Smith : 
"Preach sanctification, directly and indirectly, 
hi every sermon." He wrote to another: "Oh, 
purity! Oh, Christian perfection! Oh, sanc- 
tification! It is heaven below to feel all sin 
removed. Preach it, whether they will hear or 
forbear. Preach it."— P. L. 191. 

John Wesley says: "Therefore, let all our 
preachers make it a point to preach perfection 
to believers constantly, strongly and explicitly. 
I doubt not we are not explicit enough in 
speaking on full sanctification, either in public 
or private."— Vol. 6, p. 529; P. L. 190. 

Dr. Adam Clarke says: "If the Methodists 
give up preaching entire sanctification, they will 
soon lose their glory. This fitness to appear 
before God, and thorough preparation for eter- 
nal glory, is what I plead for, pray for, and 
heartily recommend to all true believers under 
the name of Christian perfection. Let all those 
who retain the apostolic doctrine that the blood 
of Christ cleanseth from all sin in this life, pray 
every believer to go on to perfection, and expect 



SANCTIFICATION. 15 

to be saved, while here below, unto fullness of 
the blessing of the gospel of Christ." — Theology, 
p. 201, idem. 

The above quotations from the beloved 
fathers of Methodism, which we are prepared 
to corroborate by hundreds of their associates 
and successors, indisputably set forth the fact 
that Methodism w^s born in a holiness band, 
and owes her very existence to the great cli- 
macteric Bible doctrine of entire sanctification; 
and, as Wesley afterward said, "This is the 
divine depositum committed to us, for the prop- 
agation of which God hath raised us .up." 
Adam Clarke declared this to be our work, 
and when we cease to preach it our glory de- 
parts. And, as Dr. Pierce proclaimed to the Gen- 
eral Conference, "Just so far as we recede from 
this doctrine and experience, we are a corrupted 
and God-forsaken Church;" and, as the General 
Conference of the undivided Church, in 1832, 
declares the experience, "cleansed by the blood 
from all sin," to have been the "common expe- 
rience of primitive Methodists," and exhorted 
the whole Church "to return to first principles;" 
so the humble attempt of this book will be to 
inculcate and enforce the Bible and Wesleyan 
doctrine of salvation, full and free, through the 



16 SANCTIFICATION. 

cleansing blood. We claim no originality, but 
propose to walk in the footprints of Jesus, cor- 
roborated and encouraged by the great cloud of 
witnesses u to this wonderful salvation, full and 
free " 

The patriarchal Church apostatized into pa- 
ganism; the Jewish into materialistic ritualism; 
the apostolic into idolatrous Romanism, and the 
Protestant, in the wake of her predecessors, i» 
already in the vortex of lifeless formalism 
Something must and will be done. If the eccle- 
siasticisms can't be saved, they must go down in 
the wreck of their predecessors. 

Holiness must be preached specifically, ur- 
gently and efficiently. The people must not 
only hear it, but must be led into the experi- 
ence. We must save the churches if we can y 
but we must save the people anyhow. The 
prophecies will be verified: "Holiness will cover 
the earth." 

Entire sanctification is the only Bible stand- 
ard. We must bring the people to it It is the 
only qualification for heaven revealed in the 
Bible. We must all have it. 

Holiness is not sectarianism. It is God's 
sweet, rich gift to all who will receive it. There 
never was a schism in the Apostolic Church till 



SANCTIFICATION. 17 

apostasy obscured the doctrine and destroyed 
the experience of sanctification. There is har- 
inony now with all people enjoying the sancti- 
fied experience. Let it be preached and enjoyed 
in all churches and disliar.no ny is at an end. 

Thus our Savior's prayer (John xvii. 17-21) 
toi the sanctification of his people, "that all 
may be one," will be answered. Verily, this 
doctrine and experience constitute the only 
feasible scriptural basis of Christian union. 
This is the soul, center and climax of all truth, 
and all experience. 

Bishop Foster beautifully says : " Motives to 
holiness? Are they not everywhere? Do they 
not come down from the heavens and spring 
from the earth ? Do we not feel them within 
and behold them without us? Is there any- 
thing that has a voice that does not preach it? 
What is heaven but an eternal monument of its 
glory? What is hell but a terrible and endless 
declaration of its necessity? Turn where we 
will, whether to time or eternity, to the throne 
or the abyss, a million arguments commend it 
to us; a million voices urge it upon us." — 
Christian Purity, p. 184; P. L. 177. 
2 



18 sanctif1cati0n. 

3. — Criticism and Controversy. 

While I court neither controversy nor crit- 
icism, I write as I preach and live, fearless of 
both. 

To persons who call me narrow, fanatical, 
etc., I have no reply. To all persons who be- 
lieve the book to antagonize the word of God, 
I wish to say: It will afford me great pleasure 
to meet you privately or publicly, and by speech 
or pen endeavor to answer your questions. 

4.— Solution. 

Sanctification will solve all your difficulties. 
The true policy is to get the experience. It is 
like regeneration and everything else that God 
does, mysterious. 

Don't trouble yourself about the difficulties, 
but go to God and get the blessing; and call it 
what you please, explain it as you please, but 
get it and keep it. 

You must have it or there is no heaven for 
you. Be sure you get it and keep it, and 
heaven's wide opening gate bids you welcome. 



SANCTIFICATION. 19 



CHAPTER I. 

SANCTIFICATION, HOLINESS AND PERFECTION. 

1. Sanctification is one of the plainest, clear- 
est and most^ significant words in the Bible. 

How sweet it is to know that the Holy Spirit 
selected the right word in every case to make 
his revelation. 

Sanctify (Gr) hagiadzoo is a compound of two 
Greek words, the prefix alpha, the strongest 
negative in the language, and gee, the earth, or 
the world. 

Hence, hagiadzoo means to " take the world 
out,' 3 or to purify, since the world is fallen, cor- 
rupt, subjugated and dominated by Satan. 1 
John ii. 16, tells us the contents of the world, 
namely, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the 
eye, and the pride of life, i. e., fallen nature in 
the aggregate, i. e., depravity, i. e., inbred, in- 
dwelling, original sin. Of course the removal 
of the world, i. e., fallen nature, out of your 
heart, cleanses your heart. 



20 SANCTIFICATION. 

2. Holiness means wholeness or soundness, 
i. e., soul-soundness, i. e., a state in which soul 
ailments are cured. Hence, it is strictly a sani- 
tary word, and means entire healing. 

While the above is true of the English mean- 
ing of holiness, it is proper to state that in the 
Bible it is precisely synonymous with sanctifica- 
tion, from the simple fact the same original 
word means both. (Gr) Hagiasma is sometimes 
translated holiness and sometimes sanctification. 

Hence, sanctification and holiness, and their 
derivations throughout the Bible, are synony- 
mous. 

3. Perfection. " Be ye therefore perfect, as 
your Father who is in heaven is perfect," Matt. 
v. 48. 

Many in the Scriptures professed perfection, 
e. g. y Hezekiah, xxxviii. 3. I have walked be- 
fore thee in truth and with a perfect heart; 
(and Paul, Phil. iii. v ) Let us, therefore, as 
many as be perfect, be thus minded. The 
commandment be perfect, rings through the 
Bible. Professions of perfection abound in 
both Testaments. Absolute perfection belongs 
to God alone. Angelic and Adamic perfection 
precludes all infirmities. This perfection we 
never can reach till we go out of these bodies. 



SANCTIFICATION. 21 

But Christian perfection is the positive and ex- 
plicit commandment of our Savior. We can 
and must have it. What is it? Spiritual 
purity, *. 6. ; salvation from all sin, within and 
without, actual and inbred. * Let us cleanse 
ourselves from all the filthiness of the flesh and 
spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God," 
2 Cor. vii. 1. 

In this Scripture we see that perfect holiness 
is secured by being cleansed from all the filthi- 
ness of the flesb. and spirit. 

The Christian perfection commanded in the 
Bible and professed by saints under all dispensa- 
tions is a perfection of quality and not of quan- 
tity. It is nothing but heart purity, secured by 
the cleansing blood. 

" Be perfect, as God is perfect," don't mean 
that you are to have the natural perfections of 
God, nor that you shall be impeccable like God, 
but that you shall have no sin, i. e., be free 
from sin, i. e., as destitute of sin as God, though 
in the midst of temptation and liable every mo- 
ment to commit sin. Christ wants to do for you 
a perfect work, i. e., save you from all sin, act- 
ual and original, and keep you saved from all 
sin, and in that case you are perfect. Hence, 
you can and must obey his commandment " Be 



22 SANCTIFICATION. 

perfect, " (perfection often refers to maturity, 
but in that case is never mandatory.) 

All these words, sanctification, holiness and 
perfection, when mandatory, have a sinward 
signification. They simply mean the elimina- 
tion of all sin out of you, i. e., " freedom from 
sin." The man saved from all sin is entirely 
holy, sanctified and perfect. Hence we use 
these words synonymously throughout this 
book. 

We claim this to be normal, Bible, apostolic 
Christianity, which saves us from all sin and 
keeps us saved forever. All inferior types 
we regard as unscriptural, anti-Wesleyan, and 
destined to break down this side of heav- 
en's gate. 

We here give somewhat at length Father 
Wesley's definitions of this doctrine. Cer- 
tainly, sanctification (in the proper sense) is in- 
stantaneous deliverance from all sin, vol. 7, p. 
717. " Cleansed from all inbred pollution, " 
" Nothing in the soul but pure love alone," 
" The evil nature, the body of sin destroyed," 
*" Perfect health restored," "To sin entirely 
dead," "A dean heart," "Rooting out the seed of 
sin," "A heart entirely pure," " Delivered from 
the root of bitterness," " The second blessing," 



SANCTIFICATION 23 

" Destruction of the roots of sin in a moment," 
" The soul pure from every spot, clean from all 
unrighteousness," "Nature entirely changed," 
"Nothing higher than pure love," "Full salva- 
tion now by simple faith," P. and M. 34. " The 
same spirit of faith which immediately purifies 
our hearts when we cordially believe the par- 
doning love of God, completely cleanses them 
when we fully believe his sanctifying love." 
—Rev. John Fletcher, P. and M. 35. 

" What then is this complete sanctification ? 
It'is the cleansing of the blood that has not been 
cleansed ; it is washing the soul of a true be- 
liever from the remains of sin." — Clarke's The- 
ology, p. 206, idem. 

" We have already spoken ot justifica- 
tion, adoption, regeneration and witness of 
the Holy Spirit, and we proceed to another 
as distinctly marked and as graciously prom- 
ised in the Holy (Scriptures; this is, the 
entire sanctification, or the perfected holi- 
ness of .believers." Happily for us a sub- 
ject of so great importance is not involved in 
obscurity. — Rev. Richard Watson, idem. 

" The degree of original sin, which remains in 
some believers, though not a transgression of a 
known law, is nevertheless sin, and must be re- 



24 SANCTIFICATICN. 

moved before one goes to heaven, and the re- 
moval of this evil is what we mean by full sanc- 
tifieation." — Bishop Hedding, idem. 

This is authority from headquarters, clear and 
unmistakable. 

You see Richard Watson, the prince of theo- 
logians, says " it is not leit in obscurity." I 
say, amen. It flashes and blazes from the alpha 
of Genesis to the omega of Revelation. 

4. The negative side. Sanctification, holi- 
ness and perfection in the exegesis I have 
•given, are all negative and mean the removal 
of ail sin. In authorities cited they are anon 
negative and positive, and sometimes both. 
The negative process of cleansing is instan- 
taneous and complete; the positive (i. e., firing 
you with love) may be gradual and with spirit- 
ual enlargement, indefinitely progressive. Sanc- 
tification negatives depravity, \ e. it takes the 
world, i. e., fallen nature out of you ; holiness 
negatives ailment, i. e., it takes all diseases out 
of you and makes you whole ; while perfection 
negatives deficiency, and affirms completeness 
in Christ. So in sanctification we lose all sin 
and all sinward tendencies. Then the spirit 
fills the vacuum with the pure love of God, and 
thus finishes our Christian character. We may 



SANCTIFICATION. 25 

be but babes in Cbrist and must grow to matu- 
rity. The wonderfully rapid growth we enjoy 
when entirely sanctified soon reaches proximate 
maturity ; but while this growth continues with 
ever increasing rapidity through time and eter- 
nity, it never can reach absolute maturity. But 
praise the Lord, maturity is nowhere recognized 
as a qualification for heaven ; purity alone fits 
us for glory. 



26 SANCTIFICATION. 



CHAPTER II. 

CONVERSION. 

This great initial salvation embraces justi- 
fication through the atonement received and ap- 
propriated by faith, regeneration wrought by 
the Holy Spirit in the heart, adoption into the 
family of God, and the witness of the Holy 
Spirit speaking to the heart and telling you 
that these mighty works have actually been 
wrought. The convicted sinner, in utter 
despair, and casting himself on the mercy of 
God in Christ, is freely pardoned for Christ's 
sake. The Holy Spirit long hovering around 
him, and shining into him, now joyfully enters, 
applies the cleansing blood and washes away the 
defilements wrought by his own sins upon his 
heart, regenerates him, (G) Zooopoieese, e. i. 7 
creates life in him (Eph. ii. 5). The fact of con- 
version homogeneous with sanctification, is 
regeneration, e. I, the new creation which is 
also initial sanctification. Regeneration cleanses 



SANCTIFICATION. 27 

us back to our infancy (Matt, xviii. 30 ; Cor. 
iii. 3), and imparts the life of Grod to the dead 
soul— Rev. G. D. Watson, D. D., P. L., 29. 

Are you converted ? If so, your sins are all 
forgiven, your heart is regenerated by the Holy 
Spirit, and you are living a holy life, e. i., a life 
in which you commit no known sin, and omit no 
no known duty. 

Though you have war in your heart with in- 
dwelling sins, e. i.j depravity or the corruption of 
your fallen nature, you have- grace to conquer 
and do conquer and live without committing 
known sins. If you attend Satan's meetings, 
such as dances, horse-races, etc., you have no 
religion at all. If you desire to attend them 
you have no religion. " He that committeth 
sin is of the devil ... whosoever is born 
of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed 
remaineth in him ; he can not sin because he is 
born of God."— John iii. 8, 9. 

These plain and unmistakable Scriptures, 
with hundreds of others, set forth the absolute 
incompatibility of Christianity and the com- 
mission of sin. Many think it takes entire 
sanctification to keep us from committing sin. 
This is a great mistake. Justification, the 
minimum of Christianity, keeps from commit- 



28 SANCTIFICATION. 

ting sin, while justification is compatible with 
inbred sin, which is subjugated and suppressed, 
so that it is not permitted to break out into the 
commission of sin ; sanctification roots out and 
utterly destroys that inbred sin (or sinward 
tendency) puts an end to the civil war by which 
the justified soul holds in check sinward tenden- 
cies, gives the soul "peace flowing like a river/' 
and sweet, happy rest in the arms of Jesus. 

It is a lamentable fact that the popular 
standard of justification in almost all of the 
churches is infinitely below that of the Bible. 
This illustrates the deplorable fact patent to all 
wakeful Christians, that we live in an age of 
fallen churches, through which millions of souls 
are traveling to hell. 

Men wrapped in deep sleep, don't like to be 
awakened ; men freezing to death, don't like to 
be disturbed ; hence the friction incurred and 
the antagonism provoked, when we ring in 
their faces the straight, flinty gospel of full 
salvation from all sin. The truth is, our 
churches are filled with unconverted sinners and 
backsliders, who are opposed to holiness, be- 
cause it is opposed to them. They think 
they can be Christians and sit in the easy chair 
of carnal policy and compromise with the 



SANCTIFICAT10N. 29 

world, the flesh and the devil. " There is 
therefore now no condemnation to them who 
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, 
but after the Spirit." — Rom. viii. 1. If you are 
a Christian, you are in Christ. Now there is 
no condemnation, therefore you commit no sin. 

It is a great mistake to think converted 
people are opposed to sanctification. All who 
have tasted life's pure river thirst for a more 
copious draught. Sanctification is more religion. 
All who have any, want more. So when people 
intelligently oppose sanctification always rest as- 
sured they are unconverted or fallen. 

There is perfect harmony between conversion 
and sanctification and no possible antagonism. 
They are the two crossings out of Egypt into 
the Canaan of full salvation. A fallen Church 
has fought against holiness, and forced the 
secession of God's people from the Waldensian 
exodus of the third century to the present day. 

A fallen Church is the devil in the power of 
an angel of light, while in the vulgar vices he 
is in the form of a roaring lion ; but we have 
him to fight till we conquer the world for Christ, 
then the apocalyptic angel will descend and 
lock him up in hell, and Jesus will reign in the 
earth as in every sanctified heart without a rival. 



30 SANCTIPICATION. 

Have you the witness of the Spirit testifying 
to your spirit that your sins are forgiven, and 
your name written in the Lamb's book of life? 

Do you shun the appearance of evil, commit 
no sin, and do your whole known duty? 

If you can't answer these questions in the af- 
firmative, you would better seek the Lord with- 
out delay. 



SANCTIFICATION. 31 



CHAPTER III. 

REGENERATION IS NOT COMPLETE PURITY. 

" Except ye be converted, and become as 
little children/' . . . Matt, xviii. 3 shows 
that conversion brings you to the status of your 
infancy. But infants have sinward tendencies. 
"And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as 
unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto 
babes in Christ . . For ye are yet carnal " 
—1 Cor. iii. 1-3. 

The apostle exhorts the same people to 
" cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the 
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear 
of God."— 2 Cor vii. 1. 

These Scriptures state in so many words that 
babes in Christ have carnality, i. e., depravity, 
I e., inbred original sin, L e , fallen spiritual 
nature i. e., the fallen world. The meaning of 
sanctify is to take the world out of you, i. e. to 
cleanse the heart from carnality. 

"I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my 



32 SANCTIFICATJON. 

mother conceive me," with many parallels, over- 
whelmingly proves native depravity, /*. e., inbred 
sin. We are born in Adam the first, where sin 
inheres, and must be transferred to Adam the 
second, in whom holiness inheres. Infants rank 
with believers (Matt, xviii. 6), being incompetent 
to resist the normal efficacy of the atonement 
by unbelief. Hence, the Holy Spirit washes 
them in the cleansing blood, sanctifies them 
and takes them to heaven. 

Our fathers all taught that inbred sin re- 
mained in regenerated people until removed by 
entire sanctification. Wesley says: "The re- 
pentance consequent upon justification is widely 
different from that which is antecedent to -it. 
This implies no guilt, no sense of condemnation, 
no consciousness of the wrath of God. It does 
not suppose any doubt of the favor of God, or 
any fear that hath torment. It is properly a 
conviction, wrought by the Holy Ghost, of the 
sin which still remains in our heart; of the car- 
nal mind, which does still remain (as our Church 
speaks) 'even in them that are regenerated/ 
alth »ugh it does no longer reign ; it has not now 
dominion over them." — Sermons, vol. 2, p. 389; 
P. L 113. 

Again, in his "Sermon on Patience," he says: 



SANCTIFICATION. 33 

"Till this universal change (purification) was 
wrought in his soul (the regenerate), all his 
holiness was mixed." — P. and M. 111. 

He don't mean an adulterated holiness, but 
holiness and depravity mixed like wheat and 
cockle in the same vessel ; mixed, but not con- 
solidated. On the contrary, there is irreconcil- 
able antagonism and perpetual war between 
holiness and sin, and destined to continue till 
the one or the other is exterminated. Paul 
speaks of this antagonism in Galatians. "The 
flesh (depravity) lusteth (warreth) against the 
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh : and these 
are contrary the one to the other; so that ye 
can not do the things that ye would." This is 
the war in the heart of the regenerate. 

" Where the new life exists, grace has the 
mastery." — Wood, idem, 112. As Wesley says: 
11 Inbred sin may exist where it does not reign." 
— Idem. 

Bishop Heddingsays: "That a soul, merely 
born of God, needs a further sanctification is 
evident from the whole current of the writings 
of the apostles." — Idem. "When does inward 
sanctification begin? In the moment a man is 
justified. Yet sin remains in him -fear, the 
seed of all sin, till he is saflfctified through- 
3 



34 SANCTIFICATION. 

out." — Wesley s Plain AccL, P. C. 48; idem, 
113. 

Bishop Hedding says: "It seems that the 
sinfulness of our nature, or original sin, may 
remain in the new-born soul, independent of 
ohoice or even against choice." "The person 
fully sanctified is cleansed from all these inward, 
involuntary sins. "— Address at JV. J. Con., 
idem, 15. Kev. Wm. Bramwell wrote to a 
friend: "An idea is going forth that when we 
are justified we are entirely sanctified (Zinzen- 
dorfianism), and to put evil nature after justifi- 
cation is to lose pardon. You may depend upon 
it, this is the devil's great gun. We shall have 
much trouble with this, and I am afraid we can 
not suppress it." — Memoir of Bramwell, idem, 
116. 

Dr. Nathan Bangs : "After a sinner is justi- 
fied freely by his grace, that he is made deeply 
sensible, and, perhaps, more so than ever, of 
the impurity of his nature, we freely admit; 
not, indeed, because he is more impure, but 
because the light of God's Spirit shining into 
his soul now more clearly discovers to him the 
native impurity, the roots of bitterness, within." 
— Guide to Holiness, idem, 116. 

Bishop Thompson, at West Virginia Confer- 



SANCTIFICATION. 35 

ence, a few days before his death : "The justified 
and regenerated discover in themselves the re- 
mains of the carnal mind. If you accept the 
theory that you are sanctified when you are 
justified; if you find the remains of sin after 
you experience regeneration, you will be led to 
a melancholy conclusion. The opposite view, 
that we can not be made pure, is equally per- 
nicious." — Idem, 118. Bishop Foster: "Be- 
lievers are not, by virtue of the new birth, 
entirely free from sin, either as it respects the 
inward taint or outward occasional act." — Chris- 
tian Purity, p. 107; idem, 119. 

This testimony, both inspired and uninspired, 
might be multiplied indefinitely. As Wesley 
says: "It is true we are then delivered, as was 
observed before, from the dominion of outward 
sin ; and, at the same time, the power of inward 
sin is so broken that we need no longer follow 
or be led by it; but it is by no means true that 
inward sin is then totally destroyed; that the 
root of pride, self-will, anger, love of the world, 
is then taken out of the heart; or that the 
carnal mind and the heart, bent to backsliding, 
are entirely extirpated. And to suppose the 
contrary is not, as some may think, an innocent, 
harmless mistake. No; it does immense harm; 



36 SANCTIFICATION. 

it entirely blocks up the way to any further 
change." — Sermons, vol. 1, p. 124; P. and M. 
103. 

These deliverances settle the Methodistic 
attitude beyond controversy. In the doctrine 
that sanctification is not simultaneous with re- 
generation, but an after-blessing, we have with 
us all the Churches of all ages, with the single 
exception of the Moravian during the ministry 
of Count Zinzendorf, who preached that we are 
sanctified wholly when regenerated. Wesley 
controverted h'm, and had his people separate 
from the Moravians on account of this heresy. 

Though Wesley opposed this error with all 
his might, and wrote the sermon on "Sin in 
Believers" to refute this error, I am sorry to 
say many of his gospel sons to-day repudiate 
their father and adopt Zinzendorf. But let me 
here vindicate Zinzendorf from a serious mis- 
take. 

Our Zinzendorfians have no sanctified expe- 
rience. Zinzendorf had, and ranks among the 
brightest lights of the ages. Zinzendorf lifted 
conversion up to sanctification, i. e., did not 
consider them converted till they were sancti- 
fied. So he and his people were truly sanctified. 

Our Zinzendorfians drag sanctific&vxoo down 



SANCTIFICATION. 37 

to conversion, or, rather, ignore it altogether. 
So, while Zinzendorf committed an error in 
mere nomenclature, his nominal sons in-the- 
gnspel are involved in an awful heresy which 
keeps them and their people from being sancti- 
fied. 

I may here state that the Moravians soon 
observed the untenability of their doctrine and 
modified it. If you think regeneration imparts 
entire purity, tell me, did you get a pure heart 
when converted? Have you not been troubled 
with the remains of the carnal mind, such as 
pride, anger, unbelief, love of the world, love of 
money, selfishness, envy, jealousy, prejudice, 
temper, passion, lust, etc., since you were con- 
verted? All these are but the uprisings of 
inbred sin, which must be exterminated in 
sanctification. 

Purity is pre-eminently a matter of conscious- 
ness. Is your heart pure now? If men are 
sanctified when converted, show me an example. 
Sanctification at conversion is like sanctification 
by growth. We hear many argue in favor of 
both. But where are the examples? Did you 
ever see a person who could give you a Bible 
experience of sanctification in conversion or by 
growth? I have never yet seen one. 



38 SANCTIFICATION. 

I have known of hundreds of sanctified 
people, but never one who had received it in 
conversion or had grown into it; but all received 
it in a distinct blessing after conversion. 

Conversion brings the experience of pardon ; 
sanctification or heart-cleansing, that of purity. 
They are both experiences of consciousness, but 
separate and distinct. I enjoyed the experience 
of pardon nineteen years, and have enjoyed that 
of purity fifteen. A great part of the New 
Testament was written to people but partially 
Sanctified to lead them into the experience of 
entire purity; e. g. , Col. iii. 5: "Mortify your 
members," i. e., the members of the body of sin 
(old man); "fornication, uncleanness, inordinate 
affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, 
which is idolatry." Verse 8: "Anger, wrath, 
malice, blasphemy," etc. Not that Christians 
could do these things, but thejnembers of the 
body of sin subjugated in regeneration are prone 
to rise and strive for their lost dominion, thus 
keeping up a distressing civil war in the heart, 
constantly co-operating with Satan during tempt- 
ation, involving the soul in fearful and constant 
danger of transgression and apostasy. Hence 
the mandate of Grod, mortify, i. e., kill them, 
winch invariably effects entire sanctification. 



SANCTIFICATION. 39 

If the Church would only obey this and other 
parallel commandments, what a sacramental 
host she would be. Instead of the limping, 
halting people, crushed beneath mountains of 
time-serving, carnal policy, enfeebled and par- 
alyzed by inbred sin, we would have God's 
"Faith Brigade," ready to "run through a 
troop or leap over a wall." 

I am satisfied the great bulk of church-mem- 
bers to-day are unconverted sinners and back- 
sliders. The former must be converted and the 
latter reclaimed before they are ready for sanc- 
tification; while the faithful minority are justi- 
fied, and living a sad, burdensome, wilderness 
life, wandering to and fro, often in full view of 
the green hills of Canaan; but, unfortunately, 
the most of them have no Joshua to lead them 
over, so they are constantly panic-stricken by 
the great swelling Jordan. 

But, reader, if you will follow this little book, 
you can cross right over out of the wilderness 
into the Canaan of perfect love, and there abide 
amid fadeless flowers, perennial fruits, and milk 
and honey rills, till Jesus calls you to glory. 



40 SANCTIFICATION. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SUPERNATURAL. 

The most lamentable phenomenon of the age 
is the rapid recession of the Church from the 
supernaturalism of salvation. The decided 
tendency of the times is to naturalize everything. 
When supernaturalism goes out of religion, 
God goes out, and it dwindles into a silly, 
paltry, worthless humanism. And that is pre- 
cisely what it is now in most of the churches. 
Hence, in many localities, infidelity is fast 
building her cadaverous monument over the 
grave of Christianity. Our churches are dying - 
for want of the good, old supernatural gospel of 
the supernatural God. There are, of necessity, 
two great supernaturalisms in the Christian 
religion. There is a world to be created, and a 
world to be destroyed ; both require supernatural 
intervention and power. 

Regeneration is a supernaturalism, bringing in 
the new creation, the greatest and most im- 
portant work of salvation. 



SANCTIFICATION. 41 

Sanctification is a supernaturalism, e. %., the 
destruction of the old creation. God does both, 
by special and instantaneous interventions. 

There are also naturalisms in religion. Growth 
in grace is a very important naturalism ; e. i , it 
is natural for every living organism to grow. 
Progression is an irrevocable law of God's uni- 
verse. Not to progress, is to regress. Regres- 
sion is destruction. The branch grows because 
it abides in the vine. " I am the vine, ye are 
the branches." — John xv. 5. Abide in Him 
and He will attend to the growth. 

INSPIRED ALLEGORY. 

The notable transaction, in the house of 
Abraham, recorded in Gen. xxi. 1-15 and 
expounded by Paul in Gal., ix. 22-31 and 
denominated an allegory, e. i., a material trans- 
action setting forth spirited truth. 

For it is written that Abraham had two sons ; 
the one by a bond-maid the other by a free- 
woman. But he, who was of the bond-woman 
was born after the flesh; but he, of the free- 
woman, was by promise, which things are in al- 
legory ; for these are the two covenants, the 
one from Mt. Sinai, which gendereth to bond- 
age, which is Hagar. 



42 SANCTIFICATION. 

For this Hagar is Mt. Sinai, in Arabia, and 
answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in 
bondage with her children. But Jerusalem,, 
which is above, is free, which is the mother of us 
all. 

For it is written, rejoice, thou barren, that 
bearest not ; break forth and cry, thou that 
travailest not; for the desolate hath many more 
children than she which hath an husband. Now 
we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of 
promise. But as then, he that was born after 
the flesh persecuted him that was born after the 
spirit; even so it is now. Nevertheless, what 
saith the Scripture ? 

" Cast out the bond-woman and her son ; for 
the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir 
with the son of the free-woman. So then, 
brethren, we are not children of the bond- woman ? 
but of the free." 

In this allegory, Abraham emblematizes the 
true visible Church, Sarah the invisible, and 
Hagar the fallen Church ; Ishmael, the old life 
in Adam the first, and Isaac the new life in 
Adam the second ; the birth of Isaac, re- 
generation, and the expulsion of Ishmael saneti- 
fication. 



SANCTIFICATION. 43 

Abraham was the honored recipient of the 
wonderful and precious Messianic promises. 

Apparently insuperable difficulties confronted 
him in view of the sterility of his wife. Years 
roll on. Ishmael is born. Great is the rejoic- 
ing at the patriarchal home. Abraham winks at 
the irregularities connected with the birth of 
Ishmael, and concludes he will do. All the 
interests, hopes and promises of the sheikdom 
now crystallize round Ishmael. He is sole heir 
of the estate and the wonderful Messianic prom- 
ises, contemplating the salvation of the world. 

A dozen years have fled. Ishmael is a robust 
lad buoyant with hope. 

An angel visits the prophet's tent. 

Startling is the prediction. It is signally 
verified. Isaac is born. 

The patriarchal home is the scene of unpre- 
cedented joy. Now all interest is detracted from 
Ishmael and lavished upon Isaac. Ishmael, 
though disinherited and depreciated, still lives 
and continues to grow. Two years have flown. 
Ishmael is a sturdy youth of fifteen years, 
Isaac but a babe. 

Isaac is weaned, and a grand festival, at- 
tended by a vast retinue of friends, commem- 
orates the epoch. 



44 S ANCTIFIC ATION. 

Ishmael mocks Isaac ; as Paul says, persecutes 
him. He is a stout lad thirteen years older than 
Isaac. Sarah perceives at once that not only 
the peace and happiness, but even the life of her 
son, is in danger. So she unhesitatingly de- 
mands the utter removal of the bond-woman 
and her son. Abraham is heart-broken at the 
thought of casting out Ishmael, but fortunately 
he is an honest, sincere man, so he presents the 
matter to Grod. The divine answer comes. 
Your wife is right; " Cast out the bond-woman 
and her son." So without delay the mandate is 
obeyed. 

Ishmael is cast out forever, and Isaac in per- 
fect peace enjoys and inherits the patriarchal 
estate. 

SOLUTION. 

Ishmael is nature born in the Church, circum- 
cised and educated by the Father of the Faith- 
ful. His opportunities were extraordinary. 
Abraham fell into the false theology prevalent 
at the present day that a child born of good re- 
ligious parents may be so cultured and trained 
in the Church as not to need the second and 
supernatural birth That doctrine to-day is par- 
alyzing the Church and sending myriads to hell. 
I am sorry it is preached by some of the tallest 



SANCTIFICATION. 



45 



men of the kingdom. Yet it is the galvanized 
doctrine of Satan! So Abraham rejoiced for 
a dozen years in the consolation, " Ishmael will 

do." * * 

While Abraham symbolizes the visible church, 

subject to the seductions and caprices of car- 
nality, Sarah symbolizes the invisible, spiritual 
Church, the bride of Christ, and true as the 
heart of Jesus. But the angel rebukes the 
heresies of Abraham and settles the question. 
The heir must be supernaturally born. Now 
you know Isaac was not born by natural 
generation, but by the supernatural interven- 
tion of the Holy Spirit. So, throw away all 
your miserable substitutes for religion, and re- 
member the solid fact that every soul will go to 
hell who is not born from on high by the super- 
natural intervention of the Holy Spirit. ^ We 
are the children of promise as Isaac was." 

Please throw away this miserable satanic 
heresy that you can be a Christian without the 
supernatural birth of the Holy Ghost. Oh the 
fallen churches which have lost this vital cardi- 
nal truth ! 

Now Isaac is born. No irregularities (as in 
case of Ishmael) becloud the prophecies. 
Abraham rejoices incessantly. 



46 SANCTIFICATION. 

Isaac is to be weaned, i. e. 9 the new spiritual 
is to be utterly weaned, i. e., absolved from 
carnal elements. There is a great feast jn the 
interest of Isaac, the new nature, i. e., a great 
revival of religion at the time of entire sanctr 
fication. 

Ishmael persecutes Isaac ; i. e., carnal nature 
persecutes and fights against the new creature 
you received in regeneration. Sarah (the spir- 
itual church) is alarmed, and demands the utter 
ejection of Ishmael (carnality). Abraham (the 
visible church) intimately associated with fallen 
nature, deeply sympathizes with Ishmael, re- 
grets to cast him out, but honestly consults God 
and promptly obeys. Ishmael (carnality) is 
cast out forever, i. e., the house of Abra- 
ham (the human heart) is " sanctified wholly," 
1 Thess. v. 23. 

Here is Christian experience. Reader, has 
all this passed through your heart? Are 
you still in the carnality in which you were 
born ? Does Ishmael reign ? Isaac must be 
born, i. e., you must be supernaturally born by 
the power of the Holy Ghost. You respond " I 
have been converted." 

Have you not an enemy dwelling in your heart 
and fighting against you, annoying, intimidating 



SANCTIFICATION. 47 

and wounding you, interrupting your enterprises 
for good, and often causing sad defeat in spir- 
itual conflict? That enemy is your carnal 
nature, Ishmael. The voice of Sarah, the bride 
of Christ, i. e., the voice of God, says cast him 
out, i. e., get sanctified. 

Your pastor staggers like Abraham through 
sympathy with carnality ; but if he has re- 
ligon he will carry the matter to God. Then it 
is settled at once. " This is the will of God, 
your sanctification.'' — 1 Thess iv. 3. " Be ye 
perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." 
—Matt. v. 48. 

Regeneration is an instantaneous blessing, in- 
staneous as the birth of Isaac. Sanctification is 
an instantaneous blessing, instantaneous as the 
casting out of Ishmael. Suppose Ishmael had 
not been cast out, what would have been the 
state of things in the house of Abraham? 
Constant strife and "disturbance. Ishmael 
hated Isaac most inveterately. Before Isaac 
was born he was the center of interest and the 
heir of the house ; now he is utterly unappre- 
ciated and disinherited. So he is incessantly tor- 
menting Isaac. If he had remained he would 
have Isaac scared, would frequently have beaten, 
and in all probability would have killed him. 



48 SANCTIFICATIOK. 

Don't you know our carnal gets the start 
of our spiritual nature, as Ishmael had the start 
of Isaic thirteen years? The reason our 
churches are filled with backsliders is because 
Ishmael is not cast out. So he has killed 
Isaac, a id they are spiritually dead. 

The reason why our people can't pray in 
their families and hold prayer and testimony 
meetings is because big Ishmael has scared 
little Isaac till he is afraid to talk, lest the 
people (Ishmael) mock him. Ishmael has 
beaten Tsaac till he needs a bed and a physician 
instead of a battle and the shining panoply. 

Why can't we conquer the world for Christ? 
Because our churches have ceased to be the em- 
battled host, shouting the war-cry, and bidding 
defiance to the world, the flesh and the devil, 
but have become a vast hospital full of the sick 
and the dead. So the preacher, instead of lead- 
ing the panoplied host against the devil, has to 
serve as a nurse and wait on the sick, and look 
after the dead. I fear in the majority of cases 
Ishmael has never had a rival, for Isaac has 
never been born, i. e , they have never been con- 
verted But when they have been converted 
Ishmael has been permitted to stay in the house ; 
so Isaac has had no chance to grow and prosper, 



SANCTIFICATION. 49 

and have his own way uninterrupted. But in 
countless instances Ishmael kills Isaac outright, 
i. e., the remaining carnality in the heart of the 
regenerate (1 Cor. iii. 1-3) fights against the 
new life and destroys it, because you don't cast 
out Ishmael, i. e. u Cleanse yourselves from all 
the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting 
holiness in the fear of God." — 2 Cor. vii. 1. 
Now, be sure in your heart that Isaac is born, 
and then don't neglect to have Ishmael cast out ? 
i. e., get converted and get sanctified. 

Hagar emblematizes the fallen church. Yon 
see she had to go out with Ishmael. This il- 
lustrates a sad fact, verified in the history of the 
churches in all ages. It broke Paul's heart to 
give up the Jewish Church, but he had to let 
her go with carnality (Ishmael). Luther and 
his compeers did all they could to save the fallen 
Apostolic (Roman Catholic) Church, but they 
were forced to let her go out with Ishmael. 
Wesley so loved his mother Church that he 
lived and died in her membership ; yet even 
the tornado of fire, which God used him to kin- 
dle, could not save her ; she had to go out with 
Ishmael. 

Though the Methodist Church was built oi\ 
sanctification, and Wesley constantly spoke of 
4 



50 SANCTIFICATION. 

Christian perfection as the " peculiar depositum 
which God hath committed to us as a people, for 
the propagation of which he hath raised us up," 
so that no man can become a Methodist preacher 
without solemnly declaning that he " expects to 
be made perfect in this life, that he is going on 
to it and growing after it." 

Bishop Peck has written a book on holiness, 
which he calls " Central Idea of Methodism." It 
is an indisputable fact that there never would 
have been a Methodist Church had it not been 
for this doctrine. Oar fathers admitted this 
fact, as all our curriculum, besides this grand 
" Central Idea," was taught by other churches 
before we had an existence. 

Last Sunday as I descended the Mississippi 
en route to this place (Cape Girardeau, Mo.), I 
conversed .with sanctified people aboard Steamer 
David R. Powell, who certified to me that 
they were forced to leave the M. E. Church in 
Illinois because they professed sanctification. 
So they united with the Free Methodist Church 
These are sad omens. It is a historical fact that 
a fallen church never has been saved. The 
people who will may be saved, but the ecclesi- 
asticism goes out with Ishmael. 

Dr. Lovick Pierce stated before the General 



SANCTIFICATION. 51 

Conference of the Southern Methodist Church 
a truth by which we will all be judged : That 
just so far as we have given up entire sancti- 
fication we are a fallen, God-forsaken church. 
There is but one hope of Methodism and that 
is to come back to our good, old doctrines and 
experiences. If we do that we conquer the 
world ; if not, the world conquers us We have 
our choice. Our organization may go out like 
Hagar with carnality (Ishmael), but our doc- 
trines of the new creation and entire sanctifica- 
tion will survive and conquer the world. 

GROWTH. 

The question of growth is fully set forth in 
this beautiful allegory. We hear the outcry 
from the pulpit, grow into sanctification. You. 
might as well sit on the fence and wait for the 
corn to grow the weeds out of your field. 
Sanctification means cleansing, i. e., cleaning 
out your field so that the crop can grow. 
Growth belongs to the new nature and sanctifi- 
cation to the old. 

If you want Isaac to grow take Ishmael away, 
so he can't persecute or kill him ; then Isaac 
will be astonished at his own growth. 

Sanctification cleanses the heart, removes all 
antagonisms, so the new life imparted in re- 



52 SANCTIFICATION. 

generation has the dominion without a rival, 
and the growth becomes marvelous. 

Did you ever know anybody grow into sanc- 
tification? Never. So the theory is a failure. 
How absurd to say the growth of Isaac would 
run Ishmael off? Ishmael had thirteen years the 
start of Isaac and was growing as fast as he. 

Just so, the depravity which is conquered in 
regeneration, but not taken away, is a wonder- 
ful thing to grow. While people are talking 
about growing in grace, their depravity is 
growing faster than their grace. 

Growth is a naturalism peculiar to every living 
organism. You abide in the vine and the good 
Husbandman will attend to the growth. You 
plant your crop, i. e., get your soul converted, 
then destroy all the weeds, briers and brushes, 
and see that your ground is clean, i. e., get en- 
tirely sanctified, and keep sanctified, and God 
will attend to all the balance. Glory to his 
name forever. 



SANCTIFICATION. * 53 



CHAPTER V. 

ORIGINAL SIN AND ITS DESTRUCTION. 
(Please read Rom. 6th chapter.) Three dis- 
tinct methods of Scripture exegesis are now, 
and I suppose always have been, prevalent. 

1. The superficial, ceremonial and materi- 
alistic. 

2. The modified spiritual. 

3. The literal spiritual. 

The first of these is entirely without salva- 
tion. The second embraces initial salvation. 
The third, full salvation. 

The 6th chapter of Romans most lucidly il- 
lustrates these three exigeses. 

When I was an unconverted sinner, though 
rigidly keeping the moral commandments and 
enjoying water-baptism, hearing constantly from 
the pulpit that this meant water-baptism, I be- 
lieved it, and why did I think it meant water- 
baptism? Because I had no religion, and was 
ignorant of the Holy Ghost. 



54 . SANCTIFICATION. 

When my soul was converted, I knew Rom. 
6th chapter did not mean water-baptism, but 
that of the Holy Ghost. But still I had trouble 
with the Scripture, and was forced to give a 
modified interpretation. 

I could not say, "Dead to sin" (verse 11), 
for I still felt it in me. I could not say, " Free 
from sin" (verse 22), neither did I believe 
" The body of sin was destroyed (verse 6), for I 
still painfully realized that I had him on hand. 
But, glory to God! sanctification settles the 
question. When I got the experience, halle- 
luiah ! I could say with John Fletcher and 
Hester Ann Rogers, "I am dead to sin;" 
" The old man is crucified and the body of sin 
destroyed." Glory to God ! " Free from sin." 
Halleluiah, forever 1 How 1 remember when I 
was a slave in Egypt and I thought it was water- 
baptism ; when a traveler in the wilderness, I be- 
lieved it to be spiritual ; but, like thousands of 
other Scriptures, I could not take it in its full 
meaning, but had to modify it. But now that 
I am in the Canaan of perfect love, I take this 
and thousands of other Scriptures like it, in 
their full, grand, deep and wonderful significa- 
tion. 

You see plainly that the doctrine of Wesley 



SANCTIFICATION. 55 

Old man (verse 6) means original sin. It 
could not mean our own sins, for they are not so 
old as ourselves; but it is an allusion to Adam 
the first, who fell and transmitted his .fallen, 
e. i., depraved, nature to his race. This old 
man, like Briareus, has many hands, like the 
monster Cerberus, Pluto's dog, is covered with 
snake- heads, like the Lernean Hydra, he is very 
tenacious of life. This monster of iniquity is 
conquered and bound in regeneration, but cast 
out in sanctification. 

Wesley says, " You may obtain a growing vic- 
tory over sin from the moment you are justi- 
fied. But this is not enough. The body, of sin, 
the carnal mind, must be destroyed ; the old 
man must be slain, or we can not put on the 
new man, which is created after God (or which 
is the image of God), in righteousness and true 
holiness, and this is done in a moment. To 
talk of this work being gradual would be -non- 
sense, as much as if we talked of a gradual 
justification".— Jwrnal of Mrs. H. A, Roger?, 
p. 174. P. and M. 152. 

We could multiply quotations from the lights 
of Methodism and Christianity indefinitely. 
You see Wesley applies these Scriptures di- 
rectly to sanctification. 

This old man is the Adamic depravity, the 



56 SANCTIFICATION. 

seed of sin, the spirit of sin, "evil principle/' 
the " bitter root/' the "gall and wormwood/' 
the sinward inclination, the evil tendency trans- 
mitted by Adam to all his posterity. 

The members of the old man are represented 
in Paul's catalogues, as anger, wrath, malice, 
envy, jealousy, revenge, evil concupiscence, 
passion, temper, lust, pride, vanity, love of the 
world, ambition, avarice, selfishness, love of" 
money, etc. In regeneration the old man, with 
all his members, is conquered and subjugated, 
and Jesus sits upon the throne of the heart, but 
he don't reign without a rival ; for dethroned 
carnality is constantly striving to regain its lost 
dominion. This " indwelling sin" (Rom. vii., 7), 
e i. f evil principle, e. i , inherent depravity, may 
discharge its pestilential influence through any 
one of a thousand channels, e. i\, these mem- 
bers of the body (of sin) above mentioned. 

In vain would you think to get pure by work- 
ing at the members. When Hercules cut off a 
head from the hundred-headed Hydra, another 
instantly grew back. 

A venerable saint said to me a few day ago : 
u Brother Godbey, have not all Christians beset- 
ting sins?" " No, brother, sanctified Christians 
have no besetting sins." 

The so-called besetting sin is but the channel 



SANCTIFICATION. 57 

through which the bitter water flows from the 
evil fountain in the heart. 

You can't get pure by working at the streams, 
but you must remove the fountain. 

John Fletcher tells of a community in Eng- 
land, terribly infested with malarious diseases. 
♦Physicians concurrently imputed the trouble to 
a great morass in their midst. A council is 
called. Some are for immediate evacuation of 
their homes; others for draining the morass. 
The latter prevail. So all hands assemble and 
go to work in good earnest to drain the bog. 
They work hard all day and sink the water 
several inches. But, behold, the next morning the 
water is as high as it was the preceding morning. 
This arouses suspicion. Examination is made. 
A never-failing spring is found deep down in 
the center of the bog. The question is settled. 
They cut a channel through a contiguous hill 
and carry away the water ; and the filthy, pu- 
trescent, malarious bog becomes the most pro- 
lific garden in that country. 

Long have you tried to keep down anger, 
pride, "selfishness, love of money, etc., and 
signally failed. Now give up trying and trust 
an omnipotent Christ to slay the " man of sin." 
Turn him over to the Holy Ghost. He will 
"crucify and destroy the body of sin " and 



58 SAN CTIFICATION. 

"bury him into death" (Rom. vi. 4-6), e. i., 
utterly exterminate him. God's plan with sin 
is extermination. 

The Old Testament abounds in grand il- 
lustrations of this truth. I used to wonder at 
the commandment of God to utterly destroy the 
Canaan ites, Amalekites, etc., but when I got 
sanctified I understood it. These nations, who 
fought against God and his people, emblematize 
inbred sin fighting against Christ on the throne 
of our hearts, and the holiness wrought by his 
Spirit in our hearts. God's plan with them 
(irreconcilable enemies) was utter destruction \ 
so his plan with all sin is merciless extermina- 
tion. God wants to make your heart pure by 
the annihilation of all sin and sin ward tendencies. 

Depend upon it, you must have this second 
change after conversion. Conversion purifies 
you back to your infancy (Matt, xviii. 3), and 
leaves you, though a babe in Christ, " yet car- 
nal ' (Cor. iii. 1-3), exhorted by sanctified Paul 
to " cleanse yourselves from all the filthiness of 
the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the 
fear of God." Paul said: "I come unto you 
that you may have a second blessing" (James' 
Version benefit) — 2 Cor. i. 15. 

I give the following clear and unmistakable 
evidence from Father Wesley on the second bless- 



SANCTIFICATION. 59 

ing : " Indeed, this is so evident a truth, that 
well-nigh all the children of Grod, scattered 
abroad, however they differ in other points, yet 
generally agree in this : that although we may 
by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, re- 
sist and conquer both outward and inward sin," 
although we may weaken our enemies day by 
day, yet we can not drive them out. By all the 
grace which is given at justification we can not 
extirpate them. 

" Though we watch and pray ever so much, we 
can not wholly cleanse either our hearts or our 
hands, most sure we can not, till it please our 
Lord to speak to our hearts again- to speak the 
second time, ' Be clean ' ; and then only the lep- 
rosy is cleansed; then only the evil root, the car- 
nal mind is destroyed ; inbred sin subsists no more. 

"But if there be no such second change; if 
there be no instantaneous deliverance after justi- 
fication ; if there be none but a gradual work of 
God (that there is a gradual work none denies) 
— then we must be content, as well as we can, to 
remain full of sin till death." — Sermons, vol. 1, 
p. 122, P. L. 86. 

Wesley again : To talk of this work (sancti- 
fication) being gradual, would be nonsense, a& 
much as if we talked of gradual justification. — 
Journal of H. A. Rogers, p. 174, idem. 



60 SANCTIFICATION. 

You see plainly that the doctrine of Wesley 
and the Bible is instantaneous sanctification 
after justification. 

All the imagery employed in the Scriptures 
to set forth this blessing, indicates a speedy work 
like regeneration. ^ 

1. It is in this chapter (Rom. vi) compared 
to a death. Though a man may be dying ever 
so long, yet there is a moment where the soul 
leaves the body and that the moment of death. 
So you may be dying to sin ever so long, yet 
there is a moment when the body of sin leaves 
you, and you are indeed dead into sin. — Rom. 
vi. 11. 

2. It is called a crucifixion. This is a quick 
process and over forever. 

3. Again it is called a "washing." That is 
hut a momentary work. 

4. It is also illustrated by cleansing the leper. 
Jesus spake, and it A was done. 

5. It is set forth by the leaven in the meal. 
You know the leaven does its work quickly 
or never. 

6. Again it is styled a "mortification." Let 
mortification strike a man, and he is quickly laid 
in the dust. 

7. It is also compared to a "creation." To 



SANCTIFICATION. 61 

create purity is to cleanse. Well, how is it? 
God speaks, and a world is created. 

8. Again it is illustrated by the smelting 
furnace. The heat is so intense as to melt every 
known rock in the world in a few minutes. 

So refining fire goes through our hearts in- 
stantaneously and " sanctifies us wholly." 

9. Finally, the Savior actually sanctifies us by 
the baptism of the Holy Ghost. You know it 
is instantaneous. 

Every illustration in the Bible favors the in- 
stantaneous blessing (we have Bible imagery 
relative to growth, which of course is gradual). 

Dr Clarke pronounces gradual sanctification 
and seriatim pardon both alike Romish heresies. 

Wesley says : If you are seeking gradual sancti- 
fication, you may know you are wrong because 
you are seeking it by works ; that is Romanism. 
If you have to wait, it is not for God, but for 
yourself to work ; so you see you are wrong. 
You get all blessings from God ; not by works, 
but by faith alone. Hence you don't have to 
wait. For God wants to give it to you now. — 
1 Thess. iv. 3. 

Could you believe in gradual sanctification 
with these grand Scriptures before your eyes ? 

Can you believe the "old man" (Rom. vi. 



62 SANCTIFICATION. 

6) is taken out of your heart by pieces ? You 
believe no such thing. 

You may subdue him as much as you will, 
but when he dies, he dies throughout ; when he 
goes out, he goes altogether. 

Don't you want the sweet experience " dead 
indeed unto sin" (verse 11) and " free from sin" 
(verse 22), professed by all the martyrs and 
thousands of primitive Methodists, and praise 
the Lord! the present age is not without a 
panoplied host of clear witnesses to this sweet 
and rich experience. 

Glory be to God ! I am one of that number. 

Brother, you have long battled with the c 'old 
man of sin" dwelling in your heart. He has in- 
timidated you on the battle-field, paralyzed your 
energies, crippled your efforts to glorify God, 
kept you from laying up treasures in heaven, 
rendered your service to God but partial, and 
caused many a sad defeat in spiritual conflict. 

Are you not tired of this dreadful civil war? 

I sympathize with you, for I have fought 
in it nineteen years, not knowing how to get 
rid of it. But glory to God ! victory came 
fifteen years ago. No tongue can tell the 
sweetness of these fifteen years in the Canaan 
of perfect love. Why did the victory come ? 



SANCTIFICATION. 63 

The " old man was crucified and the body of sin 
destroyed." — Rom. vi. 6, 

But how shall I get rid of this indwelling 
enemy ? 

You trusted Jesus to conquer him when you 
were converted, and he did it. Now ask him 
to crucify and utterly destroy him, laying all on 
the altar and trusting the cleansing blood for a 
clean heart. There abide. The experience 
will not tarry " dead to sin," " free from sin." 

Then you will be done modifying the Scrip- 
tures like I used to do when I lived in the 
wilderness ; but you can receive those grand 
rivers of sweet truth in all their simple, soul- 
regaling and delicious fullness. 



64 SANCTIFICATION. 



CHAPTER VI. 

OUT OF EGYPT INTO CANAAN. 

Amid the grandeurs of Old Testament sym- 
bolism, this bears the palm Praise the Lord, 
for an index of spiritual experience so simple 
and lucid and at the same time, so grand and 
imposing. Egypt symbolizes sin, Canaan holi- 
ness, and the wilderness the transition state. 

When Moses stood at the burning bush, God 
said, "I have heard their cries by reason of the 
taskmasters, and have come down to deliver 
them." So, whenever sinners get tired of the 
miserable slavery and debasing drudgery of 
wicked Egypt, and cry to God, he will come 
down and break their chains and deliver them. 

The poor slaves cry for mercy. God hears 
them, comes from heaven, shakes all Egypt, 
breaks their chains, emancipates the captives, 
the Red Sea is divided, and they shout aloud on 
the other shore. 

God's plan is for them to go directly into 



SANCTIFICATION. 65 

Canaan. It is only eleven days' journey from 
Mt. Horeb, on the bank of the Red Sea, to 
Kadesh-barnea, on the border of Canaan. They 
arrive; God wants them to go right in. They 
hesitate and send out the spies. After forty 
days they return laden with the luscious fruits 
of Canaan, bringing with them a triple report: 
That it is a land flowing with milk and honey, 
atfd even better than they had ever heard of, 
they all agree; that it is occupied by giants in- 
vincible, with cities walled up to heaven, is the 
majority report; while Joshua and Caleb de- 
clare, -'All is well, and we are fully able to 
conquer the giants and possess the land." 

The multitude believe the* ten rather tharc 
the two, and the lugubrious howl of rebellion* 
roars throughout the camp. Now they refuse 
to go into Canaan, and want to abide on the 
border. But this they can't do, for their ene- 
mies attack them and God forsakes them. They 
are defeated and driven back toward the Red Sea?- 

From the daythey refuse to go into Canaan,, 
they are put under an awful discipline. They 
are forsaken of God, defeated in battle, visited 
by pestilence, destroying angels, fiery serpents 
and earthquakes. Millions of them die in thak 
waste, howling wilderness. 
5 



66 SANCTIFICATION. 

Forty years they are scathed and peeled by 
their enemies. Their weary feet find no rest. 
That was infinitely better than Egyptian slav 
ery, but it was not "the land of corn and wine." 
Moses bids them adieu on the plains of Moab, 
in full view of the beautiful land, and ascends 
Mt. Pisgah amid the loud lamentations of the 
multitude. He had been sanctified at the burn- 
ing bush more than forty years ago. 

The Spirit mightily rests upon Joshua, who 
commands them to get ready in three days to 
cross the flooded Jordan. He has no ferry and 
no pontoon bridges. They are commanded to 
walk in, as if they would wade through, and 
trust God to stop the flood. 

So the priests lead the way; the river is 
caught by an Unseen Hand, and they all pass 
over dry-shod. Loud is the shout amid the 
hills of Grilgal, where they build their monu- 
ment, stop a fortnight and hold a camp-meet- 
ing. 

Joshua is soliloquizing and reconnoitering by 
moonlight, gazing on the majestic walls of Jer- 
icho. A tall giant confronts him with uplifted 
sword. Joshua is about to meet him in a 
hand-to-hand fight, but exclaims, " Who art 
thou? Give an account of thyself." The re- 



SANCTIFICATION. 67 

sponse comes promptly, " I am the Captain of 
the host of Israel." Joshua falls and worships 
him. He then commands him to lead his army 
round Jericho seven days and shout, promising 
him to knock down the walls. 

So the wonderful promise is signally verified, 
and they possess Jericho, the ancient capital of 
the Amorites, the chief city of all the land, 
without fighting. They capture it by shouting. 
In this, God taught them the altitude of the 
Canaan life. We shout, and God fights our 
battles and wins our victories. 

They never lost a battle in all the conquest 
of Canaan except the first at Ai, and that was 
because there was a rogue -in the camp ; i. e., 
they had deviated from Christian perfection. 
God said to Joshua, and the elders lying on 
their faces and weeping, '-Up and sanctify your- 
selves;" i. e., resume at once the sanctified 
attitude. So they did. Victory returned and 
never departed. 

It is an indisputable fact that God wanted 
them to go directly from Egypt through the 
wilderness into the land of Canaan and there 
abide, and was grieved because they would not, 
but took a zigzag course back from Kadesh- . 
barnea into the wilderness. I fear to-day the 



68 SANCTIFICATION. 

majority of the nominal Church are toiling in 
Egypt, while the converted minority are wan- 
dering in the wilderness and a few enjoying the 
Canaan of perfect love. 

REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD CROSS THE JORDAN 
NOW. 

1. It is the explicit mandate of God. "Be 
ye holy, for I am holy/' '■ Be ye perfect, even 
as your Father in heaven is perfect," etc. 

2. Because your service to God is but partial. 
You know you are quenching the Holy Spirit, 
who says, " Come over at once, and possess the 
goodly land. " 

3. You can't do much in the way of growing 
in grace, i. e. , laying up treasures in heaven, in 
this wilderness. The land is miserably poor 
and sterile, and, at the same time, terribly in- 
fested with robbers. How can you accumulate 
anything? Work ever so hard, and the wild 
sons of Ishmael will spoliate, flog and run you 
away naked, wounded and empty. 

That wilderness don't belong to you. God 
gave it to Ishmael, and gave you the land flow- 
rag with milk and honey. So you would better 
get out of that wilderness, for the Arabs will 
rob you, thresh, scathe, peel and kill you as 
long as you stay thrre. 



SANCTIFICATION. ^9 

5. A wilderness Church will never conquer 
the world for Christ. As long as the Apostolic 
Church held on to the doctrines and experience 
of purity, she was a sacramental host invincible 
by the world, the flesh and Satan. The apos- 
tles went like tornadoes of fire into all nations 
and sealed their faith with their blood. 

If she had stood in her primitive consecra- 
tion, we never would have had the "dark ages;" 
the world would have been conquered and illu- 
minated with millennial glory long ago. 

6. You are already in a partially backslidden 
state, or you would not wander in the wilderness. 
Now there is great danger that you will utterly 
apostatize and lose your soul. You can't stay 
in that wilderness without quenching the Spirit, 
for if you let him have his way, he will lead 
you out of it. Oh, what a perilous life to live ! 
constantly quenching the Holy Ghost. How 
sweet and easy to let him have his way. 

7. You ruin all the young converts. When 
first converted, strong and fervent are the im- 
pulses to press right forward into the Canaan 
of perfect love. They are astonished at the 
apathy, indifference, coldness and deadness of 
the old members. They feel a powerful impetus 
to leave the church in the wilderness to press 



70 SANCTIFICATIONo 

forward into Canaan. But the church hangs 
round their necks like a millstone. So they 
first wonder, then grieve, then settle down and 
add another stratum to the backslidden stratifi- 
cation, arid, ere long, sink down into mere 
legalism, and then into a dreary Antinomian 
death. I am often, shocked at the thought of a 
bright band of young converts left in a poor 
wilderness church to die. 

8. Behold Israel ! through burning sands, 
beneath tropical skies infested by fiery serpents, 
terrified by earthquakes, defeated by their ene- 
mies, crushed by their heavy burdens, tugging 
along from day to day. Their feet find no rest, 
for the land belongs to strangers. 

Myriads of religious experiences to-day are 
nothing but a waste, howling wilderness and 
burdens unbearable. 

In your own country (Canaan) beautiful 
homes await you — houses you never built; 
fields rich as the garden of the Lord, you never 
cleared, in a land of corn and wine, and milk 
and honey, await you. God is grieved that you 
are too cowardly to go over and possess them. 

PREACHERS, 

What an awful responsibility rests on you for 
not leading your people out of the wilderness 



SANCTIFICATION. 71 

into Canaan! You have wonderful power over 
your people. You can lead them into Canaan, 
or keep them endlessly wandering in the wilder- 
ness; you can lead them up to the heights of 
spirituality, or drag them down to the depths of 
time-serving, carnal policy formalism. O preach- 
ers, remember the fate of the ten spies who 
brought back an evil report and said, " We are 
not able to possess the land." Don't you know 
God struck them all dead on the spot? Don't 
you tell your people they can't be sanctified 
now, lest you share the fate of the cowardly 
spies and die (spiritually). 

Many churches are served by unconverted or 
fallen preachers. Many preachers are back- 
slidden through the influence of their carnal 
members. Many churches are conducted on 
time-serving policy. Oh, what a pity they 
won't let the Lord manage them! 

No one can deny that the Canaan-life is the 
proper attitude of the Church, i. e., sweet, 
happy rest in the arms of Jesus; for they did 
abide in their own peaceful, happy homes which 
God had given them, and there grew rich, and 
obtained victory over the world, the flesh and 
the devil ; for God gave them constant victory 
over all their enemies, till they dethroned thirty- 



72 SANCTIFICATION. 

one kings and possessed the land in peace. God 
was grieved because they would not go right 
through and possess the land at once and for- 
ever abide in rest and victory, enjoying a sweet 
heaven in which to go to heaven. He wanted 
them to go by way of Kadesh-barnea, which 
they reached from Mt. Horeb, on the Red Sea, 
in eleven days. There they were on the very 
border of Canaan, and no Jordan to cross. 
The great, swollen Jordan, dashing by with the 
impetuosity of a mountain torrent, so swift 
that nothing could resist it, symbolizes the un- 
belief of people who ha<*e obstinately rejected 
God's plan of entire sanctification. See how 
quickly the Jordan gets out of the way when 
they believe. They say we will go over; and 
dipping their feet into the Jordan, God stops 
it, and it is as easy to walk through its dry bed 
as over the plains of Moab. So the Jordan is 
not in the way of people who have faifh. 

THE TWO CROSSINGS. 

Who can deny the two blessings in salvation 
when you know God saved his people by two 
crossings? At the Red Sea, mountains impas- 
sable, the thundering army of Pharaoh and the 
dismal ocean utterly encompassed them, so de- 
spair seized them. The mighty tempest roared 



SANCTIFICATION. 73 

through the sea all night. Moses, who was to 
thein, as it were, in the place of God, stood in 
his majesty on the bank and smote the waters 
with that miracle-working rod. The sea gave 
way and they passed through. They build no 
monuments on the shore, for God did not want 
them ever to be there again. 

This is conversion. The sinner is precipe 
tated by the thunder and lightning of hell and 
the dismal fright of the devil. Some fiery ex- 
horter smites the flood, God opens the way and 
he comes right through. God sympathizes with 
a sinner because he knows he is dead. So, if he 
will let go and fall, he will £atch him. 

It is somewhat different in the sanctification 
of a Christian. 

God knows you are alive. So he requires of 
you a consecration coextensive with your light, 
life and will. There were no coercive circum- 
stances impelling them to come out of the wilder- 
ness into Canaan. They longed for rest from 
their wanderings, victory over their enemies, 
and an ample and abundant living. God gives 
them no signs like the sweeping tornado and 
smiting rod, wielded by the most influential 
man in the world. 

Without alarms, signs or wonders, they walk 



74 



SANCTIFICATION. 



deliberately into the raging flood, as if they 
were going to wade through it. They trust 
God. The Jordan is not in their way., They 
have lost forty years of Canaan by their unbe- 
lief. 

Young converts are easily sanctified. They 
have nothing to do but consecrate their first 
love, and God gives them perfect love. So they 
abide in the land of corn and wine. They en- 
ter by way of Kadesh-barnea, with no Jordan to 
cross. But you wilderness people, who, unfor- 
tunately, instead of going into perfect love have 
lost your first love, are now confronted by this 
awful Jordan. But, remember, the Jordan is 
nothing but your own unbelief. So trust God 
now to "sanctify you wholly," and the Jordan 
is gone in the twinkling of an eye. But how 
do you get over? Just like the ancient people. 
They stepped on the rocks in the bottom of the 
river and walked over. What are these rocks? 
God's promises. So you come right through 
now on God's promises of entire purification 
1 John i. 7: "The blood of Jesus Christ his 
Son cleanseth us from all sin. ' Versa 9: 
"Cleanseth us from all unrighteousness;" and 
hundreds of promises and commandments in the 
Old and New Testaments, assuring and enjoin- 



SANCTIFICATION. 75 

ing entire purity. So walk through the Jordan 
now on the promises. 

You know they gathered up the rocks in the 
bottom of the Jordan and built their monument. 
Now search the Bible and take every promise. 
Isa. xxvi. 3: " Thou wilt keep him in perfect 
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because 
he,trusteth in thee." Take these sweet, clear 
promises of entire sanctification and build your 
monument, for here in "the land of milk and 
honey" you are to abide and grow rich till 
Jesus calls you to glory. So, whenever the 
devil tells you you are not sanctified, point him 
to your monument, and say : " I know I am in 
the Canaan of perfect love. I no longer wander 
in the wilderness, for here is my monument 
which I built out of the rocks I gathered from 
the bed of the Jordan as I came over." So you 
• can defend yourself against the subtle foe. 

Now that I am in Canaan, will you tell me 
about the manner of life here? I will with 
great pleasure, for it is entirely different from 
life in the wilderness. 

You are no longer a sojourner. You are at 
home. So now rest in the arms of Jesus. You 
will have more war and fiercer conflict than you 
ever had in the wilderness. Now that you have 



76 SANCTIFICATION. 

come into entire purity, Satan will fight you as 
never before. As long as Satan had something 
in you (depravity), he had considerable hope of 
getting you. But now that you have been wash- 
ed in the "blood of the Lamb," all hell is stirred, 
and Satan says, "Surely something must be done, 
now or never." So look out for war (external). 
What shall I do in the war? What did they 
do at Jericho, the greatest of all the battles? 
Joshua and the host shouted, and God knocked 
down the walls; subdued the giants and gave 
them victory. 

Is that all I have to do, just shout? Glory 
to God! it is Whenever the devil comes, you 
shout glory to God and Jesus will whip the 
devil for you. Well, if that's so, I don't care 
how much war I have. Glory to God! I love 
to shout, and Jesus will always give me the 
victory. I believe it, for he walks by my side 
all the time; and I sing all the day long: 
"I've reached the land of corn and wine, 
And all its riches freely mine, 
There shines undimmed one blissful day, 
For all my night has passed away. 

"My Savior comes and walks with me, 
And sweet communion here have we* 
He gently leads me by his hand, 
For this is heaven's border-land." 



SANCTIFICATION. 77 

Now that I am over Jordan, praise the Lord I 
I don't have to cross it when I die. I am in 
heaven's border-land, not so much as a tinkling 
rill intervening.' Jesus, in glory, speaks: "Sure- 
ly, I come quickly." I respond, " Even so, come, 
Lord Jesu3."— Rev. xxii, 20. 



78 SANCTIFICATION, 



CHAPTER VII. 

MATHEMATICAL EXEGESIS. 

" Elect according to the foreknowledge of 
God the Father, through sanctification of the 
Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the 
blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and 
peace be multiplied." 

Here we have the gospel from a mathematical 
standpoint ; i. e., " election," " addition/' 
"sanctification," "subtraction," "multiplica- 
tion" and "division" is involved as a logical 
sequence. The prominent fact of conversion is 
"addition." Your name is added to the Lamb's 
book of life, and the life of God is added to 
your soul. Regeneration, the central fact, of 
conversion, is a positive "addition." 

In conversion, you get something, you get 
religion. How many Christians spend all their 
lives in "addition?" What do you think of 
a school-teacher who can't lead his pupils be- 
yond "addition ? " 



SANCTIFICATION. 79 

How many teachers in the school of Christ 
have never progressed beyond V addition " in 
spiritual arithmetic ? 

Conversion puts the new life in you, and 
sanctification takes the old life out. Sanctifica- 
tion literally means taking the world, i. e. y fallen 
nature, i. e., old Adam, out of you. So sancti- 
fication is " subtraction." 

How can preachers teach the churches when 
they don't know the elementary rules? Preach- 
ers and people, it is time you had reached u sub- 
traction." 

"Multiplication" is but a rapid form of " ad- 
dition," and " division " that of " subtraction." 
So the four elementary rules are reducible to 
two, namely, " addition " and '-subtraction," i. 
€., regeneration and ^notification. 

When you get a clean heart, then the Spirit 
fills it with the pure love of God. Then all the 
graces are made perfect, because there is no an- 
tagonism to the perfect work of the Spirit. 
You have perfect love, i. e., love without any 
of the malevolent affections; perfect faith, 
faith without doubt, perfect patience, i. e., pa- 
tience without impatience, perfect hope, i. e., 
hope undimme I by a solitary cloud. Oh how 
rapidly these pure graces grow ! 



80 SANCTIFICATION. 

Now you are in " multiplication," moving 
right along. The cleansing of your heart (sanc- 
tification) opened an Artesian well in your 
soul. You no longer stand pumping at the 
old dry well as you did in the wilderness, but 
your heart is full and overflowing. Now what 
becomes of the overflow ? 5Tou divide it freely 
to all you meet. 

So now you are in " division." This is the 
way we are to conquer the world for Christ. We 
are to get full of religion and overflow it. We 
expect soon to get all the heathens converted. 
Then all the wonderful resources of the Church 
will be appropriated internally. Oh how sane- 
tification will then move! The knowledge of 
the Lord will cover the earth as the waters 
cover the abyss of the sea. 

Come, brothers and sisters, get religion, (" ad- 
dition") then get sanctified (" subtraction"), 
have all original sin, inbred corruption and sin- 
ward tendencies washed away by the cleansing 
blood. Then the Holy Ghost will fill you and 
your growth in grace will be wonderful. Then 
you will begin to scatter the fire. So you 
will multiply and divide, like an ever-widening 
river, irrigating and enriching in its onward 
sweep till it disembogues into the ocean. 



SANCTIFICATION. 81 

You people in u addition " are constantly 
longing for the grandeur and sublimity of 
" multiplication " and "division.'' But you 
can't reach them without going through 
" subtraction." If you want your corn 
to grow, clean out the weeds, briers arid 
bushes. If you want to grow in grace and be 
influential for good, get your hearts " washed 
in the blood of the Lamb/' cleansed from all 
inbred sin, and you will soon be astonished at 
your own growth. Throw down this unscrip- 
tural doctrine of growing into purity. The 
Bible nowhere imputes purity to growth ; but- 
it constantly imputes it to the cleansing blood 
and the refining fire. Growth never changes 
the quality of anything, but only the quantity. 
An apple grows, but still it is an apple. So get 
converted, get sanctified, then grow forever and 
spread out a sea of holy influence wherever jovl 

g°- 
6 



82 SANCTIFICAT10N. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

m AGRICULTURAL EXEGESIS—THE SOWER. 

Matt, xiii., Mark, iv., and Luke viii. Of 
the four sowings, but one succeeds. 

The seed was all the same and right. 

The difficulty was in the ground (the heart). 
The seed sown by the way-side is devoured by 
the fowls of the air (devils). The stony ground 
does wonderfully well for a time, but is burnt 
out by the summer sun (tribulation and perse- 
cution). 

The thorny ground crop survived still longer, 
but is utterly choked by the growing thorns 
(the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of 
riches). 

The good ground is a wonderful success, 
thirty, sixty and one hundred fold. 

Now what shall be done? It is God's will 
that all succeed. We need sanctification right 
here. 

The good is a regular sample of God's plan, 



SANCTIFICATION. 83 

When converted, they go right into sanctifi- 
tion without faltering. Their first love is ex- 
changed for perfect love, and there they abide for- 
ever. 

John Wesley says : Grace Paddy was con- 
victed, converted and sanctified in the short 
space of twelve hours. 

This good ground people came directly 
through from k'gypt into Canaan by way of 
Kadesh-barnea and had . no Jordan to cross. 

This is the way God wants all to come. They 
created the forty years' wilderness journey and 
the big, rough, rolling Jordan by their own un- 
belief. 

What shall we do with the way-side ground? 
Fence it in (take them into the Church). Then 
the rains and freezes will soften and pulverize, 
and receive seed deep down in rich, loose earth 
where the fowls can't find it. So it will 
germinate, spring up and do well. 

What shall be done for the " stony ground ?" 

Limestone is the most valuable building 
material and the greatest fertilizer in the world. 
God wants to give the crowbar and sledge of 
sanctification to pry out your rocks v and break 
them to pieces. The larger pieces you can 
utilize to erect your buildings and fences. For 



84 SANCTIFICATION. 

the innumerable fragments, God will give you 
a tornado of fire to turn into lime and make 
your ground rich as the very garden of the 
Lord. Thus the power of the Holy Ghost, the 
fire of sanctification, will make the stony ground 
good. 

Now what is to become of the thorny ground? 

God wants to give you the long, sharp mat- 
tock of entire sanctifictition to dig every thorn 
and root out of your ground, and fire from 
heaven to burn them up and enrich your soil 
with the ashes. 

I toiled amid rocks and thorns for nineteen 
years, but glory to God ! fifteen years ago the 
Lord came with a mighty earthquake, and a 
cyclone of fire, tore up all the ground and burnt 
the rocks into lime and the thorns into ashes. 
Since that time I have been singing glory, plow- 
ing the rich fields of Canaan. God wants to 
save all. But only the good ground (good 
hearts, i. e., clean hearts, washed in the blood of 
the Lambj will be saved. 



SANCTIFICATION. 85 



CHAPTER IX. 

WHY SHALL I BE SANCTIFIED? 

1. Because it is the positive commandment of 
God, " Be holy," " Be perfect," " Sanctify your- 
selves," etc. 

2. Without it you never can reach the status 
God has for you and be what God wants you to 
be. 

3. There will always be territory in your 
heart occupied by depravity which ought to be 
occupied by the Holy Spirit. 

4. There are great and important commands 
of God appertaining to purity and perfect love, 
6. y., "love the Lord with all thine heart, soul, 
mind and strength," you never can obey with- 
out this blessing Deut. xxx 6: "I will cir- 
cumcise (purify) thy heart, that thou mayest 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart . . . 
and live." Circumcision took place after birth, 
so spiritual circumcision, sanctification, must 
take place after spiritual birth ; but the interval 



86 SANCTIFICATION. * 

should not be long, — eight days are long enough 
to discover the inbred sin and go to the foun- 
tain and be washed clean and white in the blood 
of the Lamb, 

5. Your growth in grace will be impeded, if 
not utterly paralyzed, as Fletcher says, "by 
draining suckers and shading brambles. " 
Growth in grace before entire sanctification as 
a general rule is a very little thing. You grow 
in intellect and knowledge, but how many Chris- 
tians, striving to grow in grace, are more spiritual 
and Christlike than when they were converted 
twenty years ago? Go and catechise these 
people who are trying to grow into sanctifica- 
tion, and in nine eases out often, you will find 
with them it is not a question of growth, but of 
life. It is not "Ain I growing?" but "Am I alive?" 
not " How much religion have I?" but " Have I 
religion at all?" Before I was sanctified I 
grew in knowledge, and suppose I grew some in 
grace, but it was so little and so slow, I can't 
tell about it. But I am satisfied I grew more 
in nineteen days after my sanctification than in 
the nineteen years of my unsanctified Christian 
life 

6. You ought to be sanctified so you can lay 
up treasures in heaven. In this world we are 



SANCTIFICATION. 87 

environed by enemies and everywhere impeded 
by difficulties. We should be brave enough to 
'•run through a troop and leap over a wall." We 
all need perfect love for the battle against the 
world, the flesh and the devil, and a poor battle 
we will fight without it. 

If I had died fifteen years ago, I am satisfied 
I would have gone to heaven, but would have 
been a very poor man in the land of the glori- 
fied. 

I had preached fifteen years, and don't know 
that I had been instrumental in converting fif- 
teen souls. 

Since my sanctification I have preached fif- 
teen years, and witnessed five thousand con- 
versions and hundreds of sanctifications. 

7. You ought to be " sanctified wholly," be- 
cause, if you don't get this blessing you will 
lose your religion, fall back into condemnation 
and sink into hell. This is proved by a host of 
Scriptures and especially by Heb. vi. 1-6. 
Then Paul, who professed Christian perfection 
(Phil. iii. 15), and preached it all his lifetime, 
exhorts us, leaving the doctrines and experi- 
ence of conversion (as studies, but carrying 
them with us as instruments), to "go on to per- 
fection"; meanwhile he holds out the appalling 



88 SANCTIFICATION. 

incentive of final apostasy without the possi- 
bility of restoration. Of course I believe a per- 
son may lose his justification and regain it, I 
know not how often. 

The safe method of Biblical exegesis is to 
leave everything where the Holy Ghost leaves 
it. So let us leave this Scripture. 

Here the apostasy is antithetical to the per- 
fection. They are both to be understood in 
their final sense, i. e., you will sooner or later 
be made perfect in love and ready for heaven, 
or you will fall into condemnation and never be 
reclaimed. 

Sanctification prepares for heaven, condemna- 
tion for hell. 

All the justified as a finality go one way or 
the other, i e., "on to perfection/' "or back into 
hopeless condemnation. " soul, "go on to per- 
fection " now, lest you fall and never rise. 



SANCTIFICATION. 89 



CHAPTEE X. 

HOW SHALL I GET SANCTIFICATION? 

Praise the Lord that I am permitted to 
answer this question. With an open Bible and 
my own sweet and happy experience, I am your 
humble servant for Jesus' sake. 

There are - but two facts involved in seeking 
sanctification, namely, submission and faith. 
But you need a preparation to seek it. 

1. You must be converted. Candidates for 
sanctification should stand clear in justification. 

You may be converted or reclaimed from a 
backslidden state, and then sanctified under the 
same spiritual influence. 

In many cases reclamation or conversion is 
mistaken for sanctification. You can, however, 
very easily detect such a mistake. If you are 
convicted of guilt, you may know you need jus- 
tification or reclamation. If you are convicted 
of an indwelling enemy warring against you and 
God, so that you are disgusted with your own 



90 SANCTIFICATION. 

felt impurity and disco n for mi ty to the divine 
image, so that you are painfully conscious of 
your own deficiency, i. e., that you are not what 
God wants you to be, and you intensely hunger 
and thirst after righteousness ; and at the same 
time you feel no condemnation in the sense of 
guilt, then you may know that you are convicted 
for sanctification. 

Sanctification removes inherent depravity, i e. f 
inbred or original sin, for which we are never 
condemned, because we never committed it. 

A man has consumption. No one blames him 
for having it, because he inherited it. Yet, if 
he don't get cured it will kill him. So you 
have inbred sin. You are not condemned for it 
because you inherited it, but it is a soul poison 
which will destroy your soul if you don t get 
it cured. 

2. It is not only important that you be con- 
victed of inbred sin, but that you believe (for 
"without faith it is impossible to please God") 
that there is an immediate remedy for all this 
trouble, i. e., believe in entire sanctification. 

3. You must make up your mind to seek it 
now. 

4. You must be willing to pay the price for 
it, i. e. , all the world, for that is precisely the 



SANCTIFICATION. 91 

meaning of the word (G) hagiadzoo, to take 
the world out of you. 

This great outside wicked world can never 
hurt you if you get it all out of your heart 
.and keep it out. ■ Ships float in the great 
ocean ; but if the oeean gets into them they 
soon sink. So you will certainly sink into hell 
if you don't have all this fallen world (John 
ii. 16 : " The lust of the flesh, the lust of the 
eye and the pride of life ") taken out of your 
heart. 

Are you ready? Methinks you say "yes." 
Now you shall have it ; full and complete con- 
secration. 

"Here I give my all to thee, 

Friends and time and earthly store, 
Soul and body, thine to be, 
Wholly thine for evermore." 

Here I give my all I know and all I don't know, 
for God knows what I don't know as well as 
what I do know, so I can truly consecrate all to 
God. Now you have laid all on the altar; Jesus 
says "The altar sanctifies the gift." — Matt. 
xxiii. 19. 

Now believe his word and take up your song, 
" 'Tis done, the great transaction is done. I am 



92 SANCTIFICATION. 

my Lord's and lie is mine. nappy day, when 
Jesus washed my sins away." 

1 John, i. 7 : " If we walk in the light, as 
he is in the light, we have fellowship one with 
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, 
cleanses us from all sin." This applies to 
Christians, for none others walk in the light as 
God is in the light. This light shines in your 
heart, and shows you the deep inbred corrup- 
tion, those distressing sinward tendencies of 
your fallen nature. At the same time that 
light reveals to you the " open fountain for 
sin and uncleanness. " — Zech. xiii 

So you have nothing to do but obey God's 
commandment, "Wash and be clean." Glory 
to God for the fountain. Abel tried it 6,000 
years ago, and it washed him pure enough to 
dwell among the angels, amid the splendor of the 
divine glory. Though millions have since washed 
in that fountain, it is as pure as when Abel 
plunged beneath its crimson wave. Brother, 
sister, try it this moment. I know by sweet 
experience it will make you "whiter than snow." 
Psalm li. 7. You will find it will " sanctify you 
wholly."— 1 Thess. v. 23. But tell me how shall 
I try it? How shall I get into the fountain? 
Glory to God, that is easily told. Jesus says: 



SANCTIFICATION. 93 

"All things are possible to him that believeth.' 7 
—Mark ix. 23. 

So it is possible for you to be sanctified this 
moment if you believe. We get everything 
from God by faith alone, as Fletcher says, "naked 
faith without feeling." So don't stop to quar- 
rel with your feelings; God will take care of 
them. You believe now. Believe what ? Why, 
that the blood cleanses you from all sin. Jesus 
says, " What things soever you desire when ye 
pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall 
have them." 

Shall I believe before I have the evidence 
that it is so ? Yes ; if you had the evidence, 
it would be no longer faith but knowledge. 

The order is, 1st. Faith ; 2d. The cleansing, 
and 3d. Your experience of the cleansing. 
The trouble with you is you want to reverse 
this order, and you can't do it. You want to 
feel first, then be sanctified, and then you will 
believe. But you must accept God's plan, and 
believe on his word that the blood cleanses you 
from all sin. While you believe the blood 
cleanses, the Holy Spirit applies it to your 
heart, washes it clean and gives you the witness 
that it is done. 

So if you would be sanctified, lay all on the 



94 SANCTIFICATION. 

altar, accept sane tifi cation on the promises, 
make your " profession of faith," stand there 
without wavering, keeping all on the altar, pray- 
ing and trusting till you get the witness to your 
entire sanctification. (Heb. x. 14.) John 
Wesley believed God often graciously with- 
holds the witness for a time to test the faith 
and enrich the experience. 

I have known a brother to accept it on simple 
naked faith and, at t^.e close of a solid year, re- 
ceive a sweet and joyful experience. It is gen- 
erally believed that so soon as the heart submits 
and believes, God accepts the offering and does 
the work. 

How shall I know I am sanctified? By %\ie 
witness of the Spirit. "For by one offering 
God hath perfected forever them that are sanc- 
tified. Whereof the Holy Spirit also is a wit- 
ness to us." — Heb. x. 14, 15. The Holy Ghost 
is the Illuminator of the world. Sinners have 
the witness of condemnation; all Christians the 
witness of pardon, and sanctified Christians the 
witness of purity. 

Nothing is ftiore patent to consciousness than 
impurity existing in the heart. So, when it is 
removed and the heart is cleansed, it is sweetly 
and delightfully realized by our consciousness. 



SANCTIFICATTON. 95 

As Bishop Foster says : " The Holy Spirit 
will lead you through those chambers of your 
heart where, to your sorrow, you have seen so 
much defilement, and show you that it is all 
gone and your heart is clean." 

The moment the heart is cleansed from sin, 
the Holy Spirit fills it with the pure love of 
God, 'which casteth out all fear." 

Then you experience Christian perfection, 
*. e , all the graces imparted in regeneration 
•exist without their antagonisms; i. e., love 
^without malevolence, faith without doubt, pa- 
tience without impatience, submission without 
rebellion, long-suffering without murmuring, 
humility without pride, and hope without a 
cloud, and obedience without the slightest wav- 
ering. 



96 ^ AN CTIFICATION. 



CHAPTER XI. 

WHEN SHALL I GET SANCTIFIED? 

The Bible is full of sanctification. So every- 
body has to admit it nominally. But wben shall 
we get it becomes the momentous question. 
And how utterly astonishing that there can be 
any controversy when the Bible settles it so 
positively, and explicitly, and repeatedly — Now, 

1. Categorical declarations — »'. e. y "This is 
his will, even your sanctification " (1 Thess. iv. 
3) — are all in the present tense. 

2. A host of commanolments, such as: " Be 
holy;" "Be perfect;" "Be filled with the 
Spirit," etc., are all in the present tense. 

3. The Bible explicitly states that man can 
not go to heaven without it; e. g. y Heb. xii. 14. 
All are exposed to death every moment. Hence, 
there is no present assurance of heaven without 
present sanctification. 

4. All its' synonyms, e. g., cleanse, purify, 
etc. , express a decisive, immediate and complete 
work. 



SANCTIFICATION. 97 



GROWTH. 



I hear no opposition to immediate sanctifica- 
tion but that which is founded on the growth 
theory. I wish here, briefly, to set forth the 
utter absurdity of the doctrine. 

1. Sanctification has no such a definition as 
growth. You might as well call a river a< 
mountain as sanctification a growth. We dare 
not deal in this arbitrary way. 

2. Growth is a word of quantity and has-- 
nothing to do with quality, whereas precisely 
the reverse is true of sanctification. It means- 
quality, and has nothing whatever to do w.ith: 
quantity. Neither does Christian perfection: 
have anything to do with quantity, but simply 
means purity. 

It is a well-known fact that growth has noth- 
ing to do with the quality of anything. Abe 
oak-tree grows and is still an oak. An apple 
grows and is still an apple. This apple is five 
times the size of that, and the quality is the 
same in both. 

3. Purity is one thing and maturity is quite 
another. Growth leads to the latter, but cleans- 
ing by the blood and fire to the former. The 
growth of a sour apple to maturity don't make 



98 SANCTIFICATION. 

it sweet. I do feel very anxious to refute this 
error, because, since the recession of Methodism 
from her primitive doctrines and experiences, it 
has become so prevalent. Thousands incessant- 
ly talking of growing into sanctification, and you 
can't find one in all the world who has ever done 
it. Is it not time you would abandon an im- 
practicable, and, therefore, untrue doctrine? 
Sanctification is utterly impossible on the growth 
theory, because they belong to different creations, 
namely : growth to the new and sanctification to 
the old. The meaning of sanctify is to take the 
old world out of you, while growth means the 
development of the new world created in regen- 
eration. No wonder our congregations perish 
when they are fed on absurdities. 

Instead of preaching to your people to grow 
into purity — an utter impossibility — tell them 
all sin, depravity and corruption are abominable 
in the sight of God, call them round the altar, 
and get them to consecrate all and trust the 
cleansing blood for entire sanctification this 
moment. God needs no help (like your works 
for growth, which is Catholicism) to make you 
pure. He wants to make you pure, i. e., "sanc- 
tify you wholly," to-day, and then give you all 
time and all eternity to grow in. The farmer 



SANCTIFICATION. 99 

keeps his field clean, and God makes his corn 
grow. Who ever heard that the growing of 
the corn would kill all the weeds, briers and 
bushes, and clean out the field? And still we 
have just such fallacy preached in our pulpits 
continually. It is deplorable the way the good 
old gospel of salvation, full and free by the in- 
stantaneous work of the Holy Ghost applying 
the cleansing blood, has gone out of our pulpits. 

As a substitute we have little scientific, eth- 
ical, metaphysical, assthetical essays, which have 
hardly a trace of gospel in them, and then wind 
up with an appeal to "grow in grace;" whereas 
the people have no grace to grow in. 

4. I said growth leads to maturity, but let me 
here state that Christian maturity is only prox- 
imate. Growth is a property of all living or- 
ganisms. Physical entities grow wonderfully, 
e. g., the acorn becomes the giant oak. Intel- 
lectual entities are still more susceptible of 
growth, e. g., the swaddling infant becomes the 
c legislator of the skies" (Kepler). But spirit- 
ual entities infinitely eclipse all others in devel- 
opment. We grow as long as we live, and infi- 
nitely faster after we die, and on through all 
eternity. 

If you want your crop to grow, keep it clean. 



100 SANCTIFICATION. 

God will send the rain and sunshine to make it 
grow. So you get your heart washed in the 
blood till it is perfectly clean and abide in the 
healing stream and stay clean, and you will 
soon be astonished at your own growth. I tried 
nineteen years to grow pure, and don't know 
that I made any proficiency till I went to meet- 
ing one night with an impure heart and came 
away emptied of sin and the world, and filled 
with God. Since that experience (which I re- 
ceived nineteen years after my conversion) I 
have never tried to grow, but I have been ut- 
terly astonished at my growth. Before that all 
I could do was to tell the same old story of my 
conversion over and over ; but now, aside from my 
conversion thirty- four years ago and my sanctifi- 
cation fifteen years ago, I have a new, sweet, de- 
licious experience every day and hour. My Savior 
is every moment leading me into newer and bright- 
er fields of glory I never saw before. Hallelujah 
to the Lamb ! I hope you will drop the popish 
dogma of purification by works, i. e., waiting to 
do good works and grow into it, and take it now 
by naked faith. John Wesley pronounces 
sanctification by growth nonsense. He says: 
u Certainly sanctification (in its proper sense) is 



S ANCTIFICATION. 101 

an instantaneous deliverance from all sin." — 
Vol. 7, p. 717; P. L. 35. 

Wesley fluctuated somewhat until 1761 ? when 
there was a great revival and a wonderful spread 
of this doctrine and experience. Then he be- 
came settled and so remained to the end of his 
life (thirty years) , constantly preaching the 
doctrine and leading the people into the expe- 
rience. 

" Inquiring (in 1761) how it was that in all 
these parts we had so few witnesses of full sal- 
vation, I constantly received one and the same 
answer: 'We see now we sought by our works; 
we thought it was to come gradually; we never 
expected it to come in a moment, by simple 
faith, in the very same manner as we received 
justification.' What wonder is it that you have 
been fighting all these years as one that beateth 
the air." — Wesley 's Works, vol. 7, p. 377; idem. 

Wesley again: " You may obtain a growing 
victory over sin from the time you are justified. 
But this is not enough. The body of sin, the 
carnal mind, must be destroyed ; the old man 
must be slain, or we can not put on the new 
man, which is created after God (or which is 
the image of God) in righteousness and true 
holiness; and this is done in a moment. To 



102 SANCTIFICATION. 

talk of this work as being gradual would be 
nonsense, as much as if we talked of gradual 
justification/' — Journal of Hester Ann Rogers; 
idem. 

I am sorry to say, according to Father 
Wesley's decision there is a heap of " non- 
sense" now preached by his gospel sons. 

Wesley : "I have continually testified for these 
twenty-five years in private and public, that we 
are sanctified as well as justified by faith. And 
indeed the one of these truths does exceedingly 
illustrate the other. Exactly as we are justi- 
fied by faith, so are we sanctified by faith." — 
Vol. 1, p. 338, idem, 88. 

Wesley constantly urged his preachers to ex- 
hort the people to expect it by faith, expect as 
you are, and expect now. 

He said : "If they thought they had to wait, 
they might be sure they were seeking it by 
works" (which is popery). 

Dr. Adam Clarke says : "We are to come to God 
for an instantaneous and complete purification 
from all sin, as for instantaneous pardon. In no 
part of the Scriptures are we directed to seek the 
remission of sins seriatim — one now, and an- 
other then, and so on. Neither in any part are 
directed to seek holiness by gradation. Neither 



SANCTIFICATION. 103 

a gradation pardon nor a gradation purification 
exists in the Bible. For as the work of cleansing 
and renewing the heart is the work of God, his 
almighty power can perform it in a moment, in 
the twinkling of an eye. And as it is this 
moment our duty to love Grod with all our heart, 
and we can not do this till he cleanse our hearts, 
consequently, he is ready to do it this moment, 
because he wills that we should in this moment 
love him . . . This moment, therefore, we 
may be emptied of sin, filled with holiness, and 
become truly happy.'' — Clarke s Theology, p» 
208, idem, 89. 

Bishop Foster says : " Sanctification is . . . 
instantaneous, in opposition to the idea of growth 
gradually to maturity or ripeness. " —Idem, 89. 

Dr. Nathan Bangs says : " Those who teach 
that we are gradually to grow into a state of 
sanctification, without ever experiencing an in- 
stantaneous change from inbred sin to holiness, 
are to be repudiated as unsound, an ti- scriptural 
and anti-Wesleyan." — Idem 89. 

So you see, beyond the possibility of a doubt, 
that the instantaneous sanctification is Wes- 
leyan, Methodistic and spiritual. So throw 
down all your excuses and get this blessing 
now. 



104 SANCTIFICATION. 

It will be a now blessing whenever you get it. 

Those who don't seek and get it now, but ex- 
pect to work and grow into it, never get it at all. 

You can't find a witness to entire sanctifica- 
tion in all that class, if you search the world 
around. But you can find thousands who do 
enjoy entire sanctification, and profess to have 
received it instantaneously. Now is the time; 
lay all on the altar and let it stay. Heavenly 
fire will fall and consume the gift. Sin-consum- 
ing flames will go through your soul and " sanc- 
tify you wholly." Stand by faith, and G-od will 
give the witness. 

Fall into the cleansing fountain, trust the 
Savior's blood to " cleanse you from all sin" 
(1 John i. 7), and while you believe the Holy 
Spirit will apply the bl >od, wash your heart and 
give you the joyous experience of purity. Don't 
wait, but surrender now, and trust, and the work 
is done. You are " sanctified wholly." Glory 
to Grod forever ! 



SANCTIFICATION. 105 



CHAPTER XII. 

HOW SHALL I KEEP SANCTIFIED? 

It is wonderfully easy to keep sanctified. 
The light which drives the darkness out of a 
room, if kept there, will keep it out. 

The fire which consumes all sin will keep all 
sin out. The Holy Ghost, who sanctifies, can 
and will, if you don't resist him, keep you sancti- 
fied. 

Jesus, who saved you from sin, can and will, 
if you let him, keep you saved from all sin. 

The blood that washed you clean will keep 
you clean if you will abide in the fountain. Be- 
fore I was sanctified I was constantly striving to 
keep my religion; now my religion keeps me. I 
rest sweetly in the arms of Jesus, and let him 
manage me and my affairs. 

I am so glad you are in this sweet, happy life 
of full and free salvation. 

1. When you got sanctified you laid all on 
the altar, trusted the cleansing blood for a clean 
heart and let Jesus have you unreservedly. 



1 06 S ANCTIFICATION. 

Now abide rlglit there, permit nothing to dis- 
turb your submission or your trust. 

Satan will offer you doubts, but you positively- 
must not tamper with a single one of them. 

Bid adieu to all doubts forever. They are 
the imps of Satan and you must not entertain 
them. If you do they will becloud your sky. 
Grlory to God ! I have not had a doubt nor a 
cloud in fifteen years. 

3. Satan will tempt you. He tempted pure 
Adam and Eve. He tempted Jesus. The ser- 
vant is not above his Lord. Just remember 
there is no sin in temptation. Satan makes the 
offer directly to your heart, or indirectly, i. e. r 
through a person ; you reject him and you com- 
mit no sin, but gain power by the battle and 
courage by the victory. 

4. Satan will tell you, you ought to be in & 
joyous rhapsody all the time. Don't you know 
this would destroy your body and rack your 
mind ? God could easily give us religion enough 
to kill our bodies, if he wanted to take us out 
of the world in that way. 

You must not think to live in a rhapsody ; you. 
must be content with deep peace, flowing like a 
river night and day. 

5. When you received this blessing, you made 



S A NOTIFICATION. 107 

full and complete abandonment of yourself, and 
all your interest temporal and spiritual, to Jesus. 
You must abide that consecration, i e., you let 
Jesus live your life for you. Rely upon it. He 
is willing and ready to carry you and all your 
burdens; and you must let him do it. You honor 
him by letting him carry all your burdens. 
Then you are light and elastic to labor in his 
vineyard. 

You must let him live your life for you. 
That life will be serene, bright and cloudless. 

6. You may be assured when you thus com- 
mit your will to him, he will work in you to 
will and to do of his own good pleasure. He 
will make every duty cease to be a burden and 
become a delight. These are his miracles of 
grace. The same duties and labors which were 
intolerably heavy and irksome before you en- 
tered this life of perfect trust, are no longer 
heavy and wearisome, but they, to your utter 
astonishment, have become the very joy of your 
heart and delight of your soul. 

If any duty is irksome and undesirable, you 
may know it is not on the altar. So put it there 
at once. Soon heavenly fire will wrap it and it 
will at once become delightful to perform. 

7. You must see God in everything, good and 



*03 SANCTIFICATION. 

bad. You don't doubt he is in the good, 
but you will be tempted to doubt his presence 
in the bad. 

Don't you know God is infinitely stronger 
than Satan? If you are true, he is with you in 
the bad as well as the good, /. e., he is on your 
side of every evil in which you are involved. 
"All things work together for good to them 
that love God." -Kom. viii. 28. In the latest 
critical version of the Greek, by Hort and West- 
eott, this wonderful Scripture reads: "God 
worketh together all things for good to them 
that love God," i. e., if you "love God" he is 
in all things to you managing them for your 
good. 

Balaam undertook to curse Israel, and God 
turned his curses into the most eloquent bless- 
ings that ever rang from mortal lips. Joseph's 
brethren thought to do him evil, but " God 
meant it for good," was with him in all his 
troubles, and lead him straight through persecu- 
tion, disgrace and dungeon to the proudest 
throne beneath the skies. When a man curses 
or persecutes you, shout glory to God, for he is 
in it, so far as you are concerned, and will turn 
it into a blessing. It makes no difference 
whether men bless or blame, rejoice in the Lord 



SANCTIFICATION. 109 

in everything, for he is right there sweetly 
leading you to glory. " Commit thy way unto 
the Lord ; trust also in him ; and he will bring 
it to pass." — Psalm xxxvii. 5. 

You must see the Lord in everything, rejoice 
in everything, and glorify God in everything. 
You live right here. " Rejoice evermore. Pray 
without ceasing ; and in everything give thanks." 
— Thess. v. 16, 17, 18. 

8. " The steps of a good man are ordered by 
the Lord." — Psalm xxxvii. 23. 

Not only will the Lord direct your way, but 
even order your steps. 

So soon as you fully commit yourself and 
enter this life of perfect trust, the Lord takes 
possession of you inwardly by his spirit and out- 
wardly by his providence, walks by your side 
and leads you by his hand. 

You must recognize the fact and let him lead 
you in everything. 

9. " Quench not the Spirit."— 1 Thess. v. 19. 
The Spirit is symbolized by the sweet, gentle 
tender dove. He is easily grieved and driven 
away. Hence be very careful, and constantly 
yield to his sweet influences. 

He will lead you to pray in your family and 



110 SANCTIFICATION 

elsewhere to speak for Jesus when he opens the 
door for you to do good. 

10. "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in 
heaven." — Matt. vi. 10. This is your constant 
prayer. It climaxes every other, and* involves 
the fact of your obedience on earth as the an- 
gels obey in heaven. How sweet to live this 
life of trust and obedience, because Jesus lives 
it for us, bears our burdens, fights our battles, 
conquers all our enemies, and gives us a sweet 
heaven in which to go to heaven. Be sure you 
never resist the Holy Ghost. 

11. Take no saint for your paragon. We are 
all alike encumbered with infirmities, i. e., sub- 
ject to blunders and mistakes. Let Jesus alone 
be your exemplar. Keep your eye on him, and 
he keeps his hand on you. 

The Holy Ghost will guide you by h's illu- 
mination, but he guides you by following Jesus. 

12. Your soul must eat; so read your Bible 
incessantly, praying the illumination of the 
Holy Ghost upon its delicious truths. 

Other good books will also be valuable to you 
as soul-pabulum. 

13. The civil war with inbred sin in your 
heart is now at an end, and Jesus reigns with- 
out a rival. So you now sweetly rest in his 



SANCTIFICATION. Ill 

arms, leaving all to him, letting him have his 
way, manage your affairs and live your life for 
you. 

14. Your life is a constant victory over the 
world, the flesh and the devil. Why? Because 
you let Jesus fight your battle, and he always 
conquers. When the devil comes, instead of 
fighting him yourself, you turn him over to 
Jesus, and you shout glory while Jesus whips 
the devil for you. This is truly the good fight 
of faith. By faith you walk, arm in arm, with 
Jesus, and if the devil dares to come, he only 
comes to certain defeat. 

Remember the walls of Jericho. That is the 
life you are living. You do the shouting, and 
Jesus sweeps every enemy from the field. Glory 
to God! for a life of sweet, happy rest and con- 
stant victory. 

15. What if I lose my sanctification ? Glory 
to God! you know where you got it. So don't 
stand a second, but fly to the cleansing fountain, 
and say: " Sweet Savior! I repent; I am sorry; 
I trust thy sweet promise and thy cleansing 
blood again for a clean heart." Remember 
God's word to Joshua and Israel, " Up, sanctify 
yourselves/' and victory in Jesus comes right 
back. Hallelujah ! 



112 SANCTIFICATION. 



PERORATION. 

1. I began this book in St. Louis, Missouri, 
on the 15th inst. Wrote on it one day on 
board a steamer descending the river to this 
city (Cape Girardeau, Missouri). Since my ar- 
rival, I have been preaching constantly, day and 
night, to packed audiences and laboring at 
crowded altars, and have witnessed the great 
power of God in converting fifty-six souls dur- 
ing these twelve days. I finish the book to-day 
—February 27, 1884 

Of course, I have written hurriedly and pre- 
cipitately in the absence of books. You say 
why did you not stop preaching to write the 
book? The people would not let me. I have 
to-day evangelistic calls enough to work an 
Annual Conference. I have not written for 
critics; however, Praise the Lord! his perfect 
love prepares me for all the criticism the book 
may provoke. 

I have not sought felicity of diction nor 



SANCTIFICATION. 113 

elegance of style. I have only endeavored to 
teach the people the way of salvation. 

2. Christian experience is the work of my 
life, and I know God will use this book to assist 
me in that work. The book is experimental 
and practical, rather than theological. 

3. I have not entered into the controverted 
theology, or, rather, philosophy, of sin. I have 
simply given the Wesleyan exegesis. 

. I claim no originality. But I do claim that 
this book is in harmony with the Bible, Wesley- 
an Methodism, and my own sweet and happy 
experience. 

4. Now, in conclusion, let me exhort you: 
Be sure you get the experience of full salva- 
tion from all sin and all sinward tendencies and 
inclinations; i. e., get washed in the cleansing 
blood. 

Do not stop to quarrel with this book when 
you have not the experience, but go ahead and 
get it. If you can get it without following the 
directions of this book, well and good; if my 
humble efforts shall lead you into the light, 
glory to God! You may cavil with this doc- 
trine as much as you please, you can't paralyze 
it. It is moving right on and destined to con- 
quer the world. The church that does not 



114 SANCTIFICATION. 

propagate it is doomed. You may go and write 
"Ichabod" on her doors. She is in the dread- 
ful succession of Judaism and Romanism. The 
man who doesn't get this experience, sooner or 
later, will finally make shipwreck and land in 
hell. Bishop Asbury wrote to Henry Smith : 
" Preach sanctification, directly and indirectly, 
in every sermon." He wrote again : "0 purity! 
O Christian perfection! O sanctification ! It is 
heaven below to feel all sin removed. Preach 
it, whether they will hear or forbear. Preach 
it."— P. L. 191. 

Wesley said in his -'Plain Account:" "Preach 
Christian perfection constantly, urgently and 
explicitly." He exhorted his preachers : " Preach 
Christian perfection. Tell the people and urge 
them to expect it by faith, expect as you are, 
and expect it now. Tell them to live in constant 
expectation of being made perfect in love." 
He said: " Preach Christian perfection and you 
will always have revivals." Dr. Clarke said: 
"If the Methodists give up preaching entire 
sanctification, they will soon lose their glory." 
—Idem, 190. 

Dr. Lovick Pierce said in a sermon before the 
General Conference of the M. E. Church, South, 
" The desire of entire sanctification is dying out 



SANCTIFIC ATION. 115 

in the Church, because the grade of religion our 
people have been running upon is below the 
level where sanctification begins." — Idem, 76. 

Again he said before the General Conference-: 
"Just so far as our Church has ceased to believe 
in entire sanctification . . and seek after it 
We are a corrupted and God-forsaken 
Church." — Idem, 214. Again, at the General 
Conference, he said: "Whatever is our (preach- 
ers') level in Christian life, will be the level oi 
our general membership. If we are not after 
entire sanctification, so neither will our members 
be."— Idem, 186. 

preachers! get sanctified. It is your duty 
to preach it to your people and lead them into 
it. How can you, if you have it not yourselves? 
They will turn on you the old proverb, "Physi- 
cian, heal thyself." 

We hear much said about the loss of pow^r 
in Methodism. It is due to but one cause, i. e., 
our recession from the doctrines and experiences 
of our fathers. Let us return and God will give 
the same power. I preached on the level of 
modern Methodism fifteen years and did almost 
no good. Fifteen years ago I got the baptism 
of the Holy Ghost and fire, and have since 



116 SANCTIFICAT10N. 

witnessed 5,000 conversions at the meetings I 
have held. Brother, you can get this experi- 
ence, and you must have it. Then you can lead 
others into it. We must come back to the old 
landmarks Bishop Asbury, the great apostle 
of American Methodism, preaching in Baltimore 
a few days before he died, after severely casti- 
gating the Baltimoreans for their spiritual re- 
gression, lifted his sonorous, though shattered, 
voice and exclaimed aloud: "Come back! come 
back! come back!" Oh, ye Methodists, come 
back to first principles and God will make us a 
cyclone of fire sweeping round the world and 
subduing all nations for Christ. 

5. While, as Wesley often said, sanctification 
is the peculiar depositum committed to us as a 
people, and for the propagation of this God has 
raised us up, I am happy to find many sanctified 
people in our sister churches; and especially do 
I rejoice to find a growing appreciation of the 
doctrine, and a constantly increasing enthusiasm 
For the experience. Though in the great revival 
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries we 
have led the column, I am beginning to feel 
jealous, lest we who were first shall be last. 

God bless the work in all churched. Sancti- 



S ANCTIFIC ATION. 117 

fication is destined ere long to sweep sin and 
sectarianism from the globe, and wrap the world 
in an ocean of millennial glory. Hallelujah to 
the Lord forever ! 



118 S ANCTIFIC ATION. 



INDEX. 



TOPICAL. 

Page 
Exordium, ........ 5 

Chapter I. — Sanctification, Holiness and Perfec- 
tion, 21 

26 

31 

40 

53 
64 

7* 
82 

85 



Chapter II.— Conversion, .... 
Chapter III. — Regeneration not Complete Purity, 
Chapter IV. — The Supernatural, 
Chapter V. — Original Sin and Its Destruction, 
Chapter VI. — Out of Egypt into Canaan, . 
Chapter VII. — Mathematical Exegesis, 
Chapter VIII. — The Sower, 
Chapter IX.— Why shall I be Sanctified ? . 
Chapter X. — How shall I get Sanctified ? . 
Chapter XI. — When shall I get Sanctified ? 
Chapter XII.— How shall I keep Sanctified ? 
Peroration, . ...... 

DE FACTO. 



96 
I05 
112 



Abbreviations," 4 

Arthur (Rev. Wm.), 12 



SANCTIFICATION. 



119 



Abraham, 


j 


age 
41 


Asbury (Bishop), 


. 14, 


114 


Bangs (Dr. Nathan), 


12, 34, 


103 


Bramwell (Rev. Wm.j, 




34 


Clarke (Dr. Adam), . 


. 14, 15, 23, 61, 102, 


114 


Conversion, 




26 


Experience (Author's), 





5 


Fletcher (Rev. John), 


23, 54 


57 


Fenelon, 




10 


Fox (George), 




10 


Foster (Bishop), 


i7, 35, 95, 


103 


Guyon (Madame), 




10 


General Conference, . 


. . . 114, 


n5 


Growth, 


. 51, 52, 97, 98, 99, 


100 


Holiness (defined), 


._ . 


20 


Hedding (Bishop), 


24, 33, 


34 


Justification, 




11 


Kempis (Thomas), 




10 


Macarius, 




9 


Moravians, 




37 


Methodism, 


10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 


103 


Peck (Dr. George), 


. 


11 


Pierce (Dr. Lovick), . 


13, 15, 5o, 


115 


Perfection (Christian, defined), . . . 20, 


114 


Regeneration, 




3i 


Sanctification (defined), 




19 


Supernaturalism, 


. 


40 


Thompson (Bishop), . 




34 


Waldenses, 




10 


Wesley (Rev. John), 11 


, 12, 14, 15, 32, 33, 36, 50, 




55, 


59, 61, S3, 101, 102, 114, 


116 



120 



8ANCTIPICATION. 







Page 


Whitefield, 


. 


. 10 


Watson (Rev. Richard), 


. 


23, 24 


Warren (Dr.), 


. 


. II 


Watson (Dr. G. D.), . 


. 


. 27 


Zinzendorf (Count), . 


• 34, 


36, 37 



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